cryptocurrency
Bulletins

Elon Musk says Tesla has ended car purchases with Bitcoin

The problem is the cryptocurrency's environmental impact.

Elon Musk

Elon Musk

Elon Musk tweeted Wednesday that Tesla has suspended sales of its vehicles using bitcoin due to concerns about fossil fuels.

The use of fossil fuels to mine bitcoin, particularly coal, are at issue, he wrote on Twitter.

Concerns about the energy use of bitcoin mining have been a major criticism of the cryptocurrency. Tesla faced blowback for its involvement with bitcoin, which seemed to fly in the face of the electric car company's environmental mission, after the company announced it had taken a $1.5 billion position in the digital currency in February and began accepting it for purchases in March.

Tesla isn't selling its bitcoin, Musk said. He didn't explain the rationale for maintaining its stake, but exiting the position would presumably require energy-intensive transactions. Tesla is also looking at other cryptocurrencies that have better energy use, he said.

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Tomio Geron

Tomio Geron ( @tomiogeron) is a San Francisco-based reporter covering fintech. He was previously a reporter and editor at The Wall Street Journal, covering venture capital and startups. He was also as a staff writer at Forbes covering social media and venture capital, and edited the Midas List of top tech investors. He can be reached at tgeron@protocol.com or tgeron@protonmail.com.

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