Elon Musk sends Bitcoin price to a three-month low with a hint that Tesla | could sell City & Economy | Finances

The world’s most popular cryptocurrency has seen its price spike this year as more companies accept it as a popular payment method. However, the price of Bitcoin fell nearly 10 percent to below $ 45,000 for the first time in nearly three months before rising to just under $ 46,000. It had traded up to $ 50,000 on Friday.

Over the weekend, Mr Musk suggested that the company is considering selling or may have already sold some of its holdings in the cryptocurrency.

The fall in Bitcoin prices was sparked by a tweet sent to the Tesla boss that said, “Bitcoiners will beat themselves in the next quarter if they find out that Tesla has dumped the rest of their Bitcoin holdings.

“With the amount of hatred [Elon Musk] I wouldn’t blame him. “

Mr. Musk simply replied, “Indeed.”

He later followed up on that tweet after the panic it caused and wrote openly, “To clear speculation, Tesla did not sell Bitcoin.”

The final blow to Bitcoin comes a week after the Tesla boss said the company stopped accepting Bitcoin as payment for its cars due to concerns about its carbon emissions.

He announced that the automaker had stopped buying vehicles with the cryptocurrency because “the use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining is increasing rapidly”.

The Tesla boss tweeted: “We are concerned about the rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel.

READ MORE: Elon Musk got blown up by an expert on “counterproductive” Bitcoin suspension

Tesla announced on February 8 that it had bought $ 1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin and was accepting it as payment for its vehicles.

But Mr Musk has been put under pressure about the impact cryptocurrency is having on the environment.

According to data from the University of Cambridge and the International Energy Agency, Bitcoin currently consumes about the same amount of energy annually as the Netherlands did in 2019.

Laith Khalaf, an analyst at AJ Bell, said, “Environmental issues are an incredibly sensitive issue right now, and Tesla’s move could serve as a wake-up call for businesses and consumers using Bitcoin, which previously ignored its carbon footprint.