Tesla chief executive Elon Musk has revealed that the electric automaker will likely resume accepting bitcoin as payment for its vehicles.
Tesla started accepting bitcoin in March, just one month after the company revealed that it had purchased $1.5 billion worth of the cryptocurrency. However, it stopped accepting it in May after Musk expressed concerns over the environmental impacts of crypto mining.
While speaking this week at the B Word conference, Musk confirmed that after conducting more research, it is likely that Tesla will again begin to accept bitcoin, Reuters reports.
Read Also: Elon Musk Hints At Tesla Not Selling Its Bitcoin Despite Plummeting Prices
“I wanted a little bit more due diligence to confirm that the percentage of renewable energy usage is most likely at or above 50%, and that there is a trend towards increasing that number, and if so Tesla would resume accepting bitcoin,” Musk said. “Most likely the answer is that Tesla would resume accepting bitcoin.”
“Tesla’s mission is accelerating the advent of sustainable energy. We can’t be the company that does that and also not do appropriate diligence on the energy usage of bitcoin,” he added.
During the conference, Musk confirmed that he has personal holdings in bitcoin, ethereum, and dogecoin, and admitted that he pumps the prices of the cryptocurrencies but doesn’t sell them.
“I might pump, but I don’t dump,” Musk said. “I definitely do not believe in getting the price high and selling… I would like to see bitcoin succeed.”
