Why is bitcoin rising? Elon Musk lays out conditions for Tesla to accept BTC again

By Michael Grothaus

In May, bitcoin got hammered due to comments from Chinese and Japanese authorities. But it also took a hit for another reason: CEO Elon Musk announced Telsa would stop accepting bitcoin due to concerns about the environmental impact of cryptocurrency mining.

But in the past day, bitcoin has leapt to a two-week high.

Yes, it’s Musk again. He tweeted and thus, the price of bitcoin has moved. This time, his tweet gave bitcoin investors some hope, so the price of the coin has shot up over 9%, at the time of this writing, to over $39,100 per coin.

So, what did Musk say this time? He tweeted a reply to Cointelegraph, asserting Telsa had only “sold ~10% of holdings to confirm BTC could be liquidated easily without moving market.” Musk then went on to say Tesla purchases via bitcoin will be possible again when miners reach a point where about half of the energy used to mine bitcoin comes from clean energy sources—as long as the future trend shows that clean energy use going in the right direction.

It’s impossible to know what the reaction to Musk’s comments will mean for bitcoin’s future, because the cryptocurrency is so volatile. While Musk’s most recent comment was good for the coin, any negative comment from regulators or another one from Musk himself could send BTC plummeting again.

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