Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA), has once again tweeted concerning Bitcoin. Musk said that his company would resume accepting Bitcoins for its electric car transaction only if the cryptocurrency is mined using renewable energy. Musk’s tweet on Sunday, however, failed to lift Bitcoin that rose a mere 5.1% to $37,360.63.
Responding to a tweet by Cointelegraph, Musk said, “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 the positive future trend, Tesla will resume allowing Bitcoin transactions.”
The Cointelegraph tweeted one of its articles wherein Magda Wierzycka, one of the richest women in South Africa and CEO of financial services company Sygnia, questioned Musk’s activity on social media over manipulation of crypto prices. Wierzycka said Musk would have been investigated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for this behavior of his had Bitcoin been more of a traditional company.
Musk, who crypto enthusiasts widely follow, has been on and off tweeting about Bitcoin, the most valuable cryptocurrency, leading to its price fluctuation. In May this year, the American billionaire had announced that Tesla would no longer accept Bitcoin for car purchases, citing environmental concerns that led to a 10% crash in Bitcoin price. This was a sharp u-turn by Musk after his announcement in February this month that Tesla had bought Bitcoins worth $1.5 billion and would accept it as a form of payment for cars.
Musk’s social media activity concerning Bitcoin has been termed manipulative by many eminent personalities from across the globe who argue that Bitcoin is mined using 78% clean energy.
Bitcoin has lost over 50 percent of its value at $31,000 at present from its record level in April this year. Other cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum also lost 45 percent.