Bitcoin price spike as Elon Musk’s Tesla 'likely' to accept cryptocurrency as payment
The billionaire entrepreneur – and Tesla Chief Executive Officer – today hinted at the radical shift, which would come into force once the company conducts due diligence on the amount of renewable energy used to mine the currency. Bitcoin spiked to £23,452.16, while ether surged 11.6 percent to £1453.62 after his remarks.
Tesla’s shares were down 0.8 percent at £477.86 in extended trading.
Mr Musk’s comments at the B Word conference come after Tesla said in May it would stop accepting bitcoin for car purchases, less than two months after the company began accepting the world’s biggest digital currency for payment.
He said: ”I wanted a little bit more due diligence to confirm that the percentage of renewable energy usage is most likely at or above 50 percent, and that there is a trend towards increasing that number, and if so Tesla would resume accepting bitcoin.
