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Musk is right saying that Bitcoin mining is dangerous for our planet. Over the past two years, the rise of Bitcoin has caused CO2 emissions to increase by over 40 million tons, which is equivalent to 8.9 million cars added to the road.
On Sunday, Elon Musk posted a tweet indicating that Tesla Inc (NYSE: TSLA) might resume accepting Bitcoin (BTC) as a payment method. According to Musk, this will happen as soon as miners start using more clean energy. Referring to environmental concerns, Musk said there should be “confirmation of reasonable (~50%) clean energy usage by miners with positive future trend”.
This is inaccurate. Tesla only sold ~10% of holdings to confirm BTC could be liquidated easily without moving market.
When there’s confirmation of reasonable (~50%) clean energy usage by miners with positive future trend, Tesla will resume allowing Bitcoin transactions.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 13, 2021
Musk’s tweet followed statement of Magda Wierzycka, CEO of South African asset manager Sygnia, that Tesla CEO’s posts on Bitcoin prices were “market manipulation”.
Musk has been playing with Bitcoin and other digital currencies in the past few months. In February, Tesla announced the purchase of as much as $1.5 billion worth of BTC, intending to start accepting the cryptocurrency as a payment method for its vehicles. In March, Musk announced that it was possible now to buy a Tesla with Bitcoin. However, in May, the initiative was suspended. As Tesla explained, it stopped using Bitcoin for payment due to concerns about fossil-fuel usage for its mining and transactions.
Tesla & Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/YSswJmVZhP
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 12, 2021
In addition, Tesla sold 10% of its Bitcoin assets. According to Elon Musk, this move is demonstrating that it is easy to liquidate any crypto without moving market.
Notably, Musk is right saying that Bitcoin mining is dangerous for our planet. It causes an incredible surge in CO2 emissions. In particular, over the past two years, the rise of Bitcoin has caused emissions to increase by over 40 million tons, which is equivalent to 8.9 million cars added to the road. Besides, Bitcoin produces more carbon emissions than the world’s largest airlines. According to BofA report, mining emits more CO2 than the whole of Greece.
The good thing is that not all cryptocurrencies have significant environmental impacts. Some do not use mining at all. Therefore, there are safe alternatives to BTC.
Bitcoin (BTC) Surges Over 9% after the Recent Tweet by Tesla CEO
Following Elon Musk’s tweet about the possibility to use Bitcoin for payment again, the coin’s price surged. Just an hour after the tweet was sent, Bitcoin added 9.66% to $39,200.21. As of the press moment, BTC is trading at $39,535.19, which is an 11.88% growth within the last 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap.
BTC’s market cap has totaled $740.6 billion. Its 7-day growth has made up 9.77%.
The coin’s price has been growing lately not only due to Elon Musk’s tweet but also because of the intention of Twitter Inc (NYSE: TWTR) to integrate Twitter or BlueSky platform with Bitcoin Lightning Network to ease subscription payments. Another company to collaborate with Bitcoin is the digital currency exchange Injective Protocol. As we have reported, it will integrate with the Stacks blockchain to ensure that Bitcoin Derivatives become fully available on Stacks.