Tesla, Elon Musk’s company will stop taking Bitcoin as a form of payment over issues of the cryptocurrency’s impact on fossil fuels, the CEO tweeted on Wednesday afternoon.
“We are concerned about quickly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin transactions and mining, particularly coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel,” Elon tweeted.
The decision comes two months after Elon declared Tesla would accept the cryptocurrency as payment. The price of Bitcoin dropped as low as 5% nearly 1 hour after Elon’s announcement.
Musk said that Tesla would not be selling Bitcoin and will explore other cryptocurrencies that use less than 2% of Bitcoin’s energy. “Cryptocurrency is a great idea on many levels and we think it has a promising future, but this cannot come at substantial cost to the environment.”
Elon Musk has been an advocate for using cryptocurrency, encouraging the use of dogecoin and Bitcoin, but last month tweeted, “Cryptocurrency is promising, but please invest with care.”
He talked about dogecoin when he hosted “Saturday Night Live” this past week, which caused its stock to fall during the episode.
Owner of Dallas Maverick, Mark Cuban replied to Elon’s comments, saying his company will continue to use Bitcoin, “because we know replacing Gold as a store of value will relieve the environment.”
Elon added, “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% of Bitcoin’s transaction/energy.”
