Elon Musk Sets The Record Straight On When Tesla Will Accept Bitcoin Again

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Inc TSLA, clarified when the automaker would start accepting Bitcoin BTC/USD for its vehicles again in response to a tweet of one of the biggest crypto publications, Cointelegraph.

What Happened: Earlier today, Elon Musk said Tesla would only get back to accepting the cryptocurrency when there’s “a clear confirmation of reasonable (~50%) clean energy usage.” 

This is inaccurate. Tesla only sold ~10% of holdings to confirm BTC could be liquidated easily without moving market.

When there’s confirmation of reasonable (~50%) clean energy usage by miners with positive future trend, Tesla will resume allowing Bitcoin transactions.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 13, 2021

The tech tycoon was replying to a tweet published by Cointelegraph regarding Sygnia CEO's latest comments. 

Magda Wierzycka, CEO of a financial services company Sygnia, heavily criticized Musk’s “recent activity on social media” and the subsequent "influence on crypto markets."

“The [Bitcoin] volatility we have seen is an unexpected function of what I would call market manipulation by Elon Musk. If that happens to a listed company, he would be investigated and severely sanctioned by [the] SEC,” said Wierzycka in a recent interview with the Money Show.

Why It Matters: In May, Musk announced that he had a "potentially promising" discussion with “North American Bitcoin miners” about the environmental impact of cryptocurrency mining.

Spoke with North American Bitcoin miners. They committed to publish current & planned renewable usage & to ask miners WW to do so. Potentially promising.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 24, 2021

But Musk's participation in the Bitcoin mining movement was met with criticism by the cryptocurrency community.

In a Bloomberg interview, a prominent crypto expert and partner at Castle Island Ventures Nic Carter said that "Bitcoiners are still intensely skeptical of him, and they view him as conflicted frankly, given that his business partially involves the sale of offsets."

Read also: Elon Musk Has No Role At Bitcoin Mining Council, Say Founding Members

What Else: In the tweet, Musk also confirmed that the company sold around 10% of its BTC holdings just to show it “could be liquidated easily” and without “moving the market.”

Despite Musk's desire not to hurt the markets, Tesla's decision to halt BTC payments had a huge impact on crypto prices. Bitcoin plummeted from $57,300 to $49,003 in a matter of hours.