Three months after Tesla said it would start accepting the cryptocurrency Bitcoin as payment, the electric car maker abruptly changed course.
In a message posted on Twitter on Wednesday, Elon Musk, Tesla’s chief executive, said that Tesla had suspended acceptance of Bitcoin due to concerns about the energy consumed by the computers that process the calculations that underpin the currency.
“Cryptocurrency is a good idea on many levels and we believe it has a promising future, but this cannot come at a great cost to the environment.” Musk wrote. “We are concerned about the increasing use of fossil fuels for mining and Bitcoin transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of all fuels.”
Earlier this year, Tesla announced that it had bought $ 1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin, and Musk touting the company’s plan to accept the coin. Subsequently, Tesla sold around $ 300 million of its Bitcoin holdings, earnings that completed its bottom line in the first quarter.
