After that tweet from billionaire and entrepreneur Elon Musk, in which he said that his electric car company Tesla would not accept bitcoin payments at the moment due to the huge energy consumption of transactions, the situation seemed as if a severe separation had occurred between the biggest cryptocurrency and its greatest protector.
Now, however, the love between them does not just seem to be restored, but Musk with a few speeches helped the digital currency to raise its price again to over 30 thousand dollars.
During a conference on cryptocurrencies – “The B Word”, the billionaire said that in addition to owning bitcoins, his companies – SpaceX and the concern for electric cars Tesla, also have a stock of digital currency.
Musk also said he has a digital wallet with bitcoins, etherium and dodicoin and has no plans to sell any of his own reserves or those of his companies.
Typically for the cryptocurrency market, the entrepreneur’s statement caused serious stirring, with the price of bitcoin rising rapidly to $ 32,820 for bitcoin, before gradually falling to about $ 31,683.
He also commented on allegations that he helped artificially increase the price of cryptocurrencies before selling his stocks.
“I can pump, but I haven’t played dumping … I’d like to see bitcoin successful. When the price of bitcoins falls, I lose money,” Musk said during the conference.
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Shortly before his remarks, the billionaire also confirmed his intention to resume accepting bitcoin payments for the purchase of electric cars from his company Tesla. He set only one condition before that happened – the extraction of cryptocurrency becomes more environmentally friendly. That was, in fact, the original reason he announced a freeze on bitcoin payments a few months ago.
The cryptocurrency has been criticized by environmental activists for wasting huge amounts of electricity on blockchain transactions.
At that time, much of the so-called Bitcoin diggers, people who use powerful computers to encrypt transactions on two sides, were located in several regions of China, where much of the electricity is still produced by burning coal.
Musk’s decision to open the door to return bitcoin payments came amid news that the company had inspected the amount of renewable energy used to extract the virtual currency.
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“I wanted a little more due diligence to confirm that the rate of use of renewable energy is probably 50% and even more and that there is a tendency to increase this share. And if so, Tesla will resume the adoption of bitcoin as a disincentive, “Musk said at The B Word conference.
And while crypto enthusiasts accepted the news of Musk’s renewed confidence in bitcoin, not everyone was so pleased.
Some Tesla investors, along with conservationists, are increasingly critical of the way bitcoin is “mined” using huge amounts of electricity generated by fossil fuels.
Back in April, it became public knowledge that the electric car company Tesla had bought $ 1.5 billion worth of bitcoins. However, Elon Musk has not yet revealed the value of the digital currency in space SpaveX.
Other speakers at The B Word conference included Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and ARK Investment Management chief Katie Wood.
