Tesla to Stop Accepting Bitcoin?
A little over a month ago Elon Musk announced via Twitter, that his company Tesla would accept Bitcoin as a method of payment. This would undoubtedly mark a transgressive move in the industry that could also serve as increased value for long-term Bitcoin investment and a strong fundamental for all cryptocurrency investors.
The American businessman has flirted on more than one occasion with cryptocurrencies, not only Bitcoin but also with currencies such as Dogecoin, practically campaigning in favor of some thanks to the mass of followers he has, which has caused in some cases a rise in its price. However, the opposite has also happened at times, a single tweet saying something negative about a cryptocurrency causes a sharp decline in the price.
Such is the case on May 12th, when Elon Musk announced through a statement that Tesla has ceased accepting Bitcoin as payment for it’s products, due to Bitcoin’s alleged environmental impact.
“We are concerned about the rapid increase in the use of fossil energy for bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal,” he said in a statement posted on Twitter. “Cryptocurrencies are a good idea … but it can’t be at great cost to the environment,” he added in a way of backtracking a bit.
And what happened in the crypto market?
This announcement caused Bitcoin to plummet by 12%, which in turn took the rest of the cryptocurrency market down with it. Market analysts see the decision as an attempt by Tesla to allay the concerns of investors who are focused on climate change and sustainability. Still, Elon Musk has been seen to have generated speculation in the crypto market in recent days. There is a particularly skeptical point in all this and that is that Musk has been flirting with cryptocurrencies for weeks, especially with bitcoin and the ‘meme’ currency known as Dogecoin, causing its price to become very volatile. He likely plays with this at his whim, and sometimes at the limit of whats legally or morally acceptable.
Another controversy was the feat achieved with Dogecoin, a ‘meme’ currency created as a joke and that has been crawling through the markets for years with touches of speculation. On an episode of the well-known ‘SNL’ Saturday Night Live show, he said that the Doge coin is a joke, and got the coin to plummet a good percentage in a few minutes. These interventions have in part been very frowned upon by the defenders of cryptocurrencies who believe that it delegitimizes technology and puts its evolution at risk, as well as the money of many people who follow what these people say.
But perhaps a new debate begins where an argument can be formed that Musk, through these jokes and controversies, is intentionally trying to manipulate the market, knowing that his company had made a very important investment in one of the affected currencies. Business Insider reported back on April 26th, 2021, that Tesla had made a staggering $101 million dollars in profit from it’s own Bitcoin investments, after it cashed out $272 million in bitcoin in the first quarter of 2021. That report can be seen by going here.