Bitcoin bounces as Musk says Tesla plans to resume payments

Bitcoin bounced higher on Monday after Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) boss Elon Musk said the electric car maker plans to resume acceptance of payments in the cryptocurrency once its miners use 50% clean energy. On Sunday, the billionaire tweeted that once there was confirmation that Bitcoin miners were deriving around half their energy usage from clean sources, Tesla would resume Bitcoin transactions for purchases of its products. This is inaccurate. Tesla only sold ~10% of holdings to confirm BTC could be liquidated easily without moving market. When there’s confirmation of reasonable (~50%) clean energy usage by miners with positive future trend, Tesla will resume allowing Bitcoin transactions. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 13, 2021 Musk originally halted payments for Tesla products using Bitcoin in mid-May following concerns about its energy usage and environmental impact.  While he did not specify how the company would confirm the 50% threshold of energy usage among miners, the comments mark the first time Musk has specified criteria for the company to resume payments in Bitcoin. The CEO also confirmed that Tesla had sold around 10% of its large Bitcoin stash, implying that the firm has not sold any more. Musk’s comments appeared to have sparked a surge in Bitcoin prices amid hopes Tesla could begin accepting it as a viable payment again alongside a beneficial shift towards green mining practices. In early deals on Monday, the digital currency was up 9.6% in the last 24 hours at US$38,920, giving it a market cap of US$729.1bn.