On Wednesday, Elon Musk tweeted that his company Tesla will stop accepting Bitcoin as a payment method. As a reminder, the company started to use cryptos as a means of paying for Tesla cars a couple of months ago, helping the Bitcoin price start its meteoric rise.
However, with Musk’s decision to give up on Bitcoin payments, the price of the world’s most popular crypto plummeted. Less than 24 hours after his tweet, the price went under $50,000 for the first time in weeks.
So, what’s the reason why Musk’s decided to finish his love affair with Bitcoin?
Musk Doesn’t Think Bitcoin is Eco-Friendly (Any More)
Saying that Musk has given up on Bitcoin would be an overstatement. Both him personally and his company still own billions of dollars’ worth of Bitcoin.
Furthermore, Musk has also stated that despite deciding to end Bitcoin purchases at Tesla, he still believes cryptocurrencies are the future. The reason why he wants to pull the break is that he’s concerned about the impact Bitcoin mining is having on the environment.
Musk also pointed out that Tesla will start accepting Bitcoin again once crypto mining switches to renewable energy sources. He also stated that his company is on the lookout for other cryptocurrencies, which would be more eco-friendly than Bitcoin.
Elon Musk is not the only one to speak up about the environmental issues surrounding cryptocurrencies. A few weeks back, Microsoft founder Bill Gates pointed out that Bitcoin uses more electricity per transaction than any other method.
Furthermore, the Bank of America conducted research on the energy consumption of cryptocurrencies. According to the study, digital currencies consume more power than American Airlines or the country of Argentina.
Bitcoin Price Goes Down, Dogecoin Goes Up
Elon Musk was the man most responsible for the most recent Bitcoin surge, which saw its price going way above the $60,000 mark. His tweet on Wednesday made the price tumble down, but it’s rebounded since at over $50,000.
Musk might have curbed his enthusiasm about Bitcoin, but his passion for Dogecoin is still on. In fact, he even spoke about it in Saturday Night Live, which he hosted last weekend.
Musk’s Tesla no longer accepts Bitcoin, but his other company, SpaceX, now accepts Dogecoin. The crypto is going to be used as one of the payment methods to finance the mission of sending the DOGE-1 satellite to the moon.
With Musk’s input, Dogecoin is now flying high, although not as high as at the start of the month. The price of one DOGE currently stands at $0.53, while its peak of $0.70 was reached about a week ago.
Nevertheless, Dogecoin seems like the biggest winner of the recent cryptocurrency talk. As a reminder, before Musk got involved with this digital currency, Dogecoin used to be thought of as a “joke coin”. Just a year ago, its price was just a couple of cents.
The question is how high can it go? Is Dogecoin going to reach the Moon, both literally and metaphorically?
