Tesla will resume accepting bitcoin as payment once the cryptocurrency’s power-hungry miners go halfway green, CEO Elon Musk tweeted Sunday.
- Musk halted Tesla’s months-old crypto foray in mid-May citing environmental concerns. But “when there’s confirmation of reasonable (~50%) clean energy usage by miners with positive future trend, Tesla will resume allowing Bitcoin transactions,” he said in the tweet.
- It is unclear how Musk will fact-check miners‘ clean energy usage as there is widespread debate over where the industry currently stands. Even so, the comments provide a first benchmark for reinstating bitcoin payments at Tesla.
- Musk’s tweet also reiterates his defense of having sold 10% of the electric vehicle maker’s bitcoin stash in Q1 and would also seem to indicate the company hasn’t sold anymore.
- Musk’s tweet may have been the propellent to the price of bitcoin which started a sharp upward move about an hour after the tweet was sent. In recent trading, bitcoin was changing hands at $39,200.21, up 9.66%, and leading a sea of green on the price page for other cryptocurrencies.
UPDATE (June 14, 03:00): Adds that the price of bitcoin may have been boosted by the news.
Read more: Michael Saylor: Mining Council Will ‘Defend’ Bitcoin Against ‘Uninformed’ and ‘Hostile’ Energy Critics
