Crypto Market Tanks Amid Tesla’s Suspension Of Bitcoin Payment Option

• “We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions”

The cryptocurrency market suffered a dip on Thursday morning, after Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla, disclosed that the electric carmaker has halted bitcoin payment option.

In March, Tesla had introduced bitcoin payment option for the company’s products, a month after it announced that it had invested $1.5 billion in bitcoin.

But in a tweet Wednesday, Musk said the company is looking at other cryptocurrencies that are more environmentally sustainable.

Checks by Ekohotblog show that the prices of Bitcoin dropped more than 11 percent to $50,883.95. Etherum price declined by 8.6 percent to 43,915 while Doge dropped by 17.06percent to $0.422653, according to CoinDesk data.

But in a tweet on his twitter page on Thursday, Musk said Tesla was deeply worried about the materials used in Bitcoin mining, noting that emissions from the fossil fuels endangered the environment.

“Tesla has suspended vehicle purchases using Bitcoin. 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,” Musk tweeted.

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“Cryptocurrency is a good idea on many levels and we believe it has a promising future, but this cannot come at great cost to the environment.

“Tesla will not be selling any Bitcoin and we intend to use it for transactions as soon as mining transitions to more sustainable energy. We are also looking at other cryptocurrencies that use <1% of Bitcoin’s energy/transaction.”