Tesla will now accept Bitcoin as payment for electric cars, Elon Musk said on Wednesday evening (US time).
The news comes just weeks after the Californian EV maker first revealed it had bought $A2 billion worth of Bitcoin, after which the digital cryptocurrency soared in value by a record 9% to $US42,709 ($A55,280).
At the time, Tesla outlined in its filing with the SEC that it would consider accepting the currency, which is now worth $US52,141 ($A68,526 converted), as payment in the future.
Now this has come to pass, said Musk, who only last week pronounced himself “Technoking” of Tesla in a tongue-in-cheek SEC filing, and labelled his CFO as “master of coin”.
You can now buy a Tesla with Bitcoin
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 24, 2021
The announcement that Tesla will accept Bitcoin was then followed up with a few clarifications, including that only US drivers would be able to pay with Bitcoin at first, and other countries would be added to the cryptocurrency payment system.
Pay by Bitcoin capability available outside US later this year
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 24, 2021
Musk then added that Tesla’s Bitcoin transactions would only be processed via its own internal Bitcoin nodes using open-source software.
Additionally, Tesla will not sell any Bitcoins received as payment, which has raised speculation about what this will mean for Tesla’s balance sheet.
Tesla is using only internal & open source software & operates Bitcoin nodes directly.
Bitcoin paid to Tesla will be retained as Bitcoin, not converted to fiat currency.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 24, 2021
Others have noted that Tesla’s decision to accept Bitcoin (the value of which is determined at least partly by how many bitcoins are available but which is considered extremely volatile because it is a relatively young currency) as payment further cements its acceptance as a viable currency.
It could also send its value up so that Bitcoin payments accepted by Tesla mean the value of the transaction increases over time.
“Tesla’s decision to both accept payment for its cars in bitcoin and hold that bitcoin on its balance sheet rather than convert it to dollars will likely build more momentum for the cryptoasset,” Simon Peters, cryptoasset analyst at brokerage eToro, said in emailed comments to Forbes.
“Tesla and other companies are showing that crypto is here to stay, and its mainstream adoption is only going to increase. In terms of market dynamics, as more companies hold bitcoin on their balance sheet, so the finite supply is depleted even more, and this is likely to cause a supply-side squeeze and boost prices over the longer-term.”
Tesla has now added its Bitcoin payment system to its US website. Order fees can also be accepted as Bitcoin but are not refundable.
So here’s what Tesla’s Bitcoin payment screen looks like pic.twitter.com/vbUdidzURR
— Whole Mars Catalog (@wholemars) March 24, 2021
