Elon Musk’s tweets can be devastating. They have the ability to reshape markets, because of his staunch following. Now, the Tesla supremo has tweeted that Tesla will stop accepting Bitcoin payments because of its environmental impact. This also comes at a time when Musk himself is promoting cryptocurrencies like Dogecoin and has even set out a Twitter poll asking users if they are open to Tesla accepting the currency.
The controversial move comes as Musk has been promoting Dogecoin, acting as a catalyst behind its rise, and also has announced a rideshare mission to the Moon via SpaceX funded by Dogecoin.
There is further criticism of the move because most EVs are still sourcing their electricity from fossil fuels as most homes are powered by the grid. Tesla however has said that its supercharger network will go fully renewable in 2021.
Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are very power-intensive as crypto mining involves having racks and racks of GPUs and big data computing capabilities stacked together which consume a lot of power, which is more often than not sourced via a fossil-fuel-powered grid. Almost, the same logic applies to electric cars, critics claim, which makes this move even more controversial.
The value of Dogecoin has skyrocketed since January 2021 ever since Musk started promoting the currency. Around about this time Musk became a proponent of Cryptocurrencies and opened up to the idea of Tesla accepting Bitcoin. Musk even had Tesla buy a tranche of Bitcoin and then sold it back, improving Tesla’s financial cash flow, showcasing a new form of liquidity.