Billionaire Elon Musk confirmed that his car company Tesla will hold crypto and accept Bitcoin for all-electric car purchases once mining becomes more environmentally friendly. He also said that he won’t sell the Bitcoin he owns.
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Musk said he would like Bitcoin to succeed and added that he will 'pump' more money rather than 'dump' it if it loses.
Musk said this during the “The B Word" conference hosted by the Crypto Council for Innovation on July 21, which saw Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey as one of the panellists.
Bitcoin is already using more renewable energy sources and Musk wanted more due diligence to ensure that such sustainable energy sources account for over 50 percent of Bitcoin mining.
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies lost $1.3 trillion in value since May after a series of headwinds including enhanced scrutiny by the Chinese, European and American regulators.
Musk’s tweets led to Bitcoin value rising back above the $32,000 level (record high of $65,000 in April 2021) on July 22 with a market value of $1.34 trillion. Musk also stimulated an increase of six to 10 percent (over the last 24 hours) in other cryptocurrencies such as Dogecoin, XRP, Cardano and Uniswap.
He admitted to owning Dogecoin (up by nine percent) and Ethereum, which rose to around $1,980 over the last 24 hours as of July 22.
Tesla had purchased $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin in February 2021. SpaceX also holds Bitcoin, Musk said.
Bitcoin cannot be the base level of the global monetary system but it can function at the second layer if it is implemented properly and rules are followed, said Musk. He added that SpaceX will play a role in Bitcoin’s future without elaborating on this.
The total market volume of cryptocurrencies traded was $64.79 billion over the last 24 hours ending July 22, while that of all stable coins was $52.65 billion (81.26 percent of the total crypto market).