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Tesla, led by Elon Musk, has confirmed that it bought around $ 1.5 billion worth of bitcoin in January and expects to start accepting it as payment in the future.
Artur Widak | NurPhoto | Getty Images
Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced on Tuesday evening that it is now possible to buy Tesla vehicles in the United States with Bitcoin.
Last month, the automaker revealed that it bought $ 1.5 billion worth of bitcoin and will soon start accepting the world’s most popular cryptocurrency as a payment method.
“You can now buy a Tesla with Bitcoin,” tweeted Musk, who officially did the “Technoking of Tesla” this month.
People outside the United States will be able to buy a Tesla with bitcoin “later this year,” Musk said, without specifying which countries.
In order to accept payment, Musk said Tesla uses “in-house” and “open source” software.
He added that Tesla “directly operates Bitcoin nodes”. Nodes are computers on Bitcoin’s network that work to verify transactions and prevent cryptocurrency from being spent twice.
Musk embraces bitcoin
Musk has embraced bitcoin more than any other major tech CEO. He has tweeted about the cryptocurrency over the past few months, sounding the alarm bells in some corners. He also tweeted about other coins like Ether and Dogecoin.
Daniel Ives, analyst at Wedbush, told CNBC last month that Tesla’s share price is now directly tied to the value of bitcoin.
“Musk is now linked to the history of bitcoin in the eyes of the street and although Tesla made a billion profit on paper in his first month owning digital gold, it comes at additional risk,” he said. Ives told CNBC via email.
Tesla’s share price and the value of bitcoin have seen huge gains over the past 12 months, with Tesla shares rising from around $ 100 to over $ 600 and bitcoin rising from around $ 7,000. over $ 55,000.
Some investors, however, are convinced that Tesla and Bitcoin are both in bubble territory.
Lansdowne Partners fund manager Per Lekander told CNBC last week that he believed Tesla was in a bubble and missing Elon Musk’s company, meaning he would profit if the Tesla’s share value drops.
Tesla’s market value soared to more than $ 800 billion in the 12 months leading up to January, before dropping to less than $ 600 billion in February. It is currently around $ 635 billion.
Tesla shares rose about 0.6% on Tuesday after-hours, after closing at $ 662.16. The price of bitcoin is $ 55,444.93.
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