'Tesla has not sold any Bitcoin,' Elon Musk says
Elon Musk wanted to clarify speculation
Tesla CEO Elon Musk clarified on Monday that the electric automaker hasn't sold any Bitcoin.
"To clarify speculation, Tesla has not sold any Bitcoin," Musk said in an early-morning Twitter exchange.
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Monday's remarks followed an earlier exchange between Musk and the Twitter account @CryptoWhale, which implied that Tesla had sold off its bitcoin holdings, which Musk previously expressed would not happen.
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"Bitcoiners are going to slap themselves next quarter when they find out Tesla dumped the rest of their holdings. With the amount of hate @elonmusk is getting, I wouldn’t blame him…" @CryptoWhale wrote.
Musk replied saying, "Indeed."
Just last week, the price of bitcoin fell below $50,000 for the first time since March after Musk announced on Twitter that the electric car maker would stop accepting the digital currency as payment for its vehicles, citing environmental concerns.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TSLA | TESLA INC. | 170.18 | +8.05 | +4.97% |
"We are concerned about rapid increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel," Musk said on Twitter. He added that cryptocurrency is a "good idea on many levels," but its promise cannot come at a "great cost to the environment."
In February, Tesla announced it had invested around $1.5 billion in Bitcoin and it planned to begin accepting the digital currency as payment "soon."
ELON MUSK CLARIFIES STANCE ON CRYPTOCURRENCIES AS PRICES FALL
Still, Musk noted that he "strongly" believes in cryptocurrency, which comes as no surprise since he has been very vocal about his support for the digital currency, especially Dogecoin.
As of 9 a.m. ET Monday, the price of bitcoin was trading at $45,086, according to Coin Base.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.