This comes after Elon Musk tweeted that Tesla would suspend purchases made by Bitcoin amid climate concerns
The CEO of the electric vehicle company, Elon Musk, said in a tweet that Tesla has suspended car purchases using bitcoin, a form of cryptocurrency that relies upon an huge amount of computer power and in turn fossil fuels, over fears for the environment.
On Twitter, Musk said in a statement: “Tesla has suspended vehicle purchases using Bitcoin. 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 statement continued: “Cryptocurrency is a good idea on many levels and we believe it has a promising future, but this cannot come at a great cost to the environment.
“Tesla will not be selling any Bitcoin and we intend to use it for transactions as soon as mining transactions to more sustainable energy.”
Musk added that Tesla is looking at other cryptocurrencies that use less than one per cent of Bitcoin’s energy.
Tesla & Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/YSswJmVZhP
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 12, 2021
As reported by CNBC, around $365.85 billion was wiped off the whole crypto market, following Tesla’s announcement.
Bitcoin is made by miners who utilise high-powered computers, frequently fulled by fossil fuels, to solve extremely complex mathematical equations.
The whole process relies upon a huge amount of electricity, which has sparked concerns given the amount of fossil fuels that are needed, particularly with regards to coal.
The Tesla CEO drew attention to the huge amount of energy Bitcoin was using on his Twitter thread.
Energy usage trend over past few months is insane https://t.co/E6o9s87trw pic.twitter.com/bmv9wotwKe
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 13, 2021
