Bitcoin pops back above $39,000 after Musk suggests Tesla could accept the cryptocurrency again
Elon Musk, founder and chief engineer of SpaceX speaks at the 2020 Satellite Conference and Exhibition March 9, 2020 in Washington, DC.
Win McNamee | Getty Images
Bitcoin’s price surged after Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Sunday the electric vehicle maker could accept bitcoin transactions again in future.
Bitcoin jumped to $39,095, up 9% in the last 24 hours and up from the $34,880 level at the start of Sunday trading, according to Coinbase. Since the start of the year, bitcoin has surged more than 30%, though it has experienced wild swings. It hit an all-time high of $64,829.14 in April and hit a low near $30,000 in May following a 30% intraday crash.
The weekend gains came after Musk said Sunday that Tesla will resume allowing bitcoin transactions “when there’s confirmation of reasonable (~50%) clean energy usage by miners with positive future trend.”
Teslas halted car purchases with bitcoin in mid-May, citing concerns over the climate impact of cryptocurrency mining.
Crypto mining requires massive amounts of energy to fuel powerful computers — bitcoin mining consumes more energy than entire countries such as Finland and Belgium, according to the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index.
Bitcoin under environmental spotlight
