Bitcoin has crashed by 12% after Tesla suspended the use of Bitcoin for vehicle purchases due to climate change concerns, following a tweet by CEO Elon Musk.
Tesla had made the announcement in March that it would accept the cryptocurrency, which was met with an outcry from some environmentalists and investors. The electric carmaker had in February revealed it had bought $1.5bn (£1bn) of the world’s biggest digital currency.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Wednesday on Twitter that Tesla has “suspended vehicle purchases using bitcoin,” out of concern over “rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for bitcoin mining.” The price of bitcoin dropped about 5% in the first minutes after Musk’s announcement and went below 12%, while Tesla shares also dipped.
In an SEC filing in February, Tesla revealed that it bought $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin and it may invest in more of bitcoin or other crypto currencies in the future. At that time, the company said it would start accepting bitcoin as a payment method for its products.
Support for cryptocurrency from Tesla contributed to the prices of cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin and dogecoin, skyrocketing in recent months.
Here was Musk’s full announcement:
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