Elon Musk stops Tesla Bitcoin payments, price instantly nosedives

Tesla has abruptly suspended vehicle purchases using bitcoin over fossil fuel and climate change concerns, Elon Musk has announced.

Tesla has suspended vehicle purchases using bitcoin, Elon Musk has announced.

“We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel,” the CEO of Tesla Motors said in a statement.

“Cryptocurrency is a good idea on many levels and we believe it has a promising future, but this cannot come at great cost to the environment.

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“Tesla will not be selling any bitcoin and we intend to use it for transactions as soon as mining transitions to more sustainable energy.

“We are also looking at other cryptocurrencies that use (less than 1 per cent) of bitcoin’s energy/transaction.”

The price of bitcoin immediately plunged after Mr Musk’s announcement this morning, falling from $67,000 to $60,000 before recovering some ground.

Tesla’s stock price has also taken a hit, dropping 4.42 per cent.

The price of bitcoin plummeted following Elon Musk's announcement that Tesla would suspend the purchasing of vehicles with the cryptocurrency. Picture: Coindesk

Tesla & Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/YSswJmVZhP

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 12, 2021

BITCOIN REALLY FALLING NOW - DOWN AS MUCH AS16%https://t.co/A1wc3J9bsCpic.twitter.com/hyIqQyLInG

— Tracy Alloway (@tracyalloway) May 13, 2021

Mr Musk announced on February 9 this year that Tesla would invest $1.95 billion in the cryptocurrency.

He also revealed that Tesla would begin accepting bitcoin as payment for its cars and other products in the near future.

That led to a massive spike in the value of bitcoin - with the crypto surging past $56,000.

Bitcoin mining uses vast amounts of energy to power specialised computers solving complex but useless mathematical problems.

Some studies suggest bitcoin production uses more electricity than the whole of Argentina, Poland, Norway, or Switzerland. But even the lower estimates are that it results in more carbon emissions than Estonia.