Elon Musk has been the “man of the hour” for far too long because of his scandalous tweets from time to time. Yesterday was no different when Musk, in reply to an allegation, tweeted that Tesla will start accepting Bitcoin once miners can confirm clean energy usage around 50%.
Tesla’s bout with Bitcoin
Tesla started accepting Bitcoin as a payment method in March for car payments. During the time, Musk also revealed the amount received in Bitcoin would not be converted into Fiat currencies such as US Dollars. What followed was Tesla filing in US Securities and Exchange Commission that the EV company has purchased Bitcoin worth over $1.5 B, which resulted in the total stash of worth $2.5 Billion in April.
However, in May, Musk, out of the blue, tweeted that Tesla will no longer accept Bitcoin, citing concerns for environmental issues. Musk also announced that he does not plan to sell any Bitcoin and will store it until miners come up with an environmentally friendly way. However, the company did sell some coins during the first quarter.
Tesla’s master of coin Zachary Kirkhorn revealed during Tesla’s Q1 2021 earnings announcement that the company sold 10% of total Bitcoin Musk explained,
“Tesla only sold ~10% of holdings to confirm BTC could be liquidated easily without moving the market.”
This tweet was a reply to the allegation by Sygnia CEO Magda Wierzycka in Cointelegraph’s article,
“What we have seen with Bitcoin is price manipulation by one very powerful and influential individual,” Wierzycka believes that “sold a big part of his exposure at the peak.” to pump Bitcoin.
However, Musk responded,
“This is inaccurate. Tesla only sold ~10% of holdings to confirm BTC could be liquidated easily without moving the market.
When there’s confirmation of reasonable (~50%) clean energy usage by miners with a positive future trend, Tesla will resume allowing Bitcoin transactions.”
Regardless of what Musk says, there is no denying that his tweets affect Bitcoin’s price tremendously. With this positive news, the cost of Bitcoin might rise again after sailing around $38,000 for quite some time.
