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Major electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla has hinted at resuming crypto payments soon. The Elon Musk-led company disclosed this news in a September quarterly filing with the US Securities Exchange Commission (SEC). Specifically, Tesla noted that it might restart the practice of transacting in digital assets in the future.
In the filing, Tesla said it purchased an aggregate of $1.50 billion (£1.09 billion) worth of Bitcoin (BTC/USD) during the nine months ending September 30. The company added that it accepted BTC as payment for the sale of certain products in specified regions, subject to applicable laws during the three months ending March 31.
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The company further noted that it believes in the long-term potential of digital assets as an investment and as a liquid alternative to cash. Additionally, Tesla pointed out that it might increase or decrease its holdings of digital assets at any time depending on business needs as well as its view of the crypto market and environmental conditions.
This news comes after Tesla suspended support for BTC payment after facing criticism for embracing the digital currency and overlooking the fact that its Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus mechanism takes a toll on the environment.
Soon afterward, Musk disclosed that Tesla would consider restoring support for BTC payments once miners shift to renewable sources of energy.
BTC continues trading sideways
Following Tesla’s suspension of BTC payments, the coin plunged from its April all-time high (ATH) of $64,863.10 (£47,094.83) and traded as low as $28,893.62 (£20,981.82).
However, BTC recovered from the prolonged bear market and surged to a new ATH of $66,930.39 (£48,606.52) on October 20 following the listing of the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO) on NYSE.
After peaking, BTC plunged again, revisiting the $59,000.00 level on October 23. While the coin has recovered some of its losses, its bulls seem to have lost air despite Tesla disclosing that it might soon resume BTC payment. At the time of writing, the flagship crypto is changing hands at $62,436.65 after losing 0.38% over the past 24 hours.
While BTC has not reacted to this news, it is worth noting that Tesla’s stock (TSLA) has been making moon shots after the company signed a deal to sell 100,000 vehicles to car rental firm Hertz. This deal saw TSLA surge to $1,000.00 (£726.26) for the first time. At the time of writing, the Tesla stock is up 12.66% in 24 hours to trade at $1,024.86 (£744.60).