Tesla has stopped accepting Bitcoin as a payment method for its cars as the cryptocurrency contributes to a greater consumption of fossil fuels, said the company founder and CEO Elon Musk on Twitter.
The electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer started accepting Bitcoins as a payment method in late March 2021 and also invested a huge sum of $1.5 billion in the cryptocurrency.
Read more: Tesla cars can now be bought with Bitcoin.
“Tesla has suspended vehicle purchases using Bitcoin.” said Elon Musk in a statement on Twitter. “We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel.”
“Cryptocurrency is a good idea on many levels and we believe it has a promising future, but this cannot come at a great cost to the environment.” he said on Twitter.
Musk also said that Tesla will no longer sell any more of the $1.5 billion stash of Bitcoin it purchased earlier this year, however, the company plans to use the cryptocurrency in the future “as soon as mining transitions to more sustainable energy.”
Tesla & Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/YSswJmVZhP
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 12, 2021
Furthermore, the company is looking at other cryptocurrencies that use less energy for mining and transactions, the statement concluded.
