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Bitcoin Value Plummets After Elon Musk Said Tesla Won't Accept The Cryptocurrency To Buy Cars

Bitcoin Value Plummets After Elon Musk Said Tesla Won't Accept The Cryptocurrency To Buy Cars

The tech billionaire is concerned about the amount of energy involved in Bitcoin mining and wants crypto to be sustainable.

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie

The price of Bitcoin has dropped dramatically after Elon Musk revealed Tesla won't allow consumers to use the cryptocurrency to buy their cars.

The tech billionaire has released a statement to Twitter saying he and Tesla are concerned about the amount of fossil fuel energy needed to mine Bitcoin and they want to ensure cryptocurrency is as sustainable as possible.

"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.

"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."

He added that Tesla will also not sell any Bitcoin in the future.

Musk said the company will be looking into other cryptocurrencies that use less than 1 per cent of Bitcoin's energy mining rate.

Unsurprisingly, news of a tech billionaire who has been vocally supportive of crypto has resulted in the price of Bitcoin to sharply drop off.

CoinDesk

According to CoinDesk, the value of the most popular cryptocurrency was at USD$54,174 for one Bitcoin just before Elon's statement was issued.

In the minutes after, it bottomed out at $52,314.

Other popular cryptocurrencies have also seen losses, including Ethereum (down 1.2 per cent), Ripple (down 6.26 per cent), and Dogecoin (down 9.48 per cent).

Tesla stock has also plummeted off the back of the news and has fallen by 4.42 per cent.

Elon announced in February this year that Tesla would invest $1.5 billion in Bitcoin, causing the cryptocurrency's value to surge past the USD$56,000 mark.

This is the second time in a week that Musk's statements have caused the value of digital money to sharply decline.

When he plugged Dogecoin on Saturday Night Live, the cryptocurrency dropped dramatically.

People all over the world lost thousands of dollars after jumping on the Doge train earlier in the week.

According to reports, the price of Dogecoin was at around USD$0.70 before Musk started the show and after it was spoken about it dropped to $0.49.

As SNL finished it crept back up slightly to around $0.57 but was still lower than it was prior to the show.

That wasn't the only SNL mention of the cryptocurrency, because later in the show Musk appeared as the financial expert and was asked repeatedly to explain what Dogecoin is.

After telling co-host Michael Che to call him 'The Dogefather', he went on to explain: "It [Dogecoin] started as a joke based on an internet meme but now it has taken off in a very real way."

After Che removed a dollar bill from his pocket, Musk went on to add: "It's about as real as that dollar...it is the future of currency, it is an unstoppable financial vehicle that is going to take over the world."

Still not happy with the answer, Che asked: "What is it, man?" He responded: "I keep telling you it's a cryptocurrency you can trade for conventional money."

Che then said: "Oh, so it's a hustle?" To which Musk agreed: "Yeah, it's a hustle."

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: Bitcoin, tesla, elon musk, News, Cryptocurrency