By Adedapo Adesanya
The price of the world’s most popular cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC), dipped by more than 2.5 per cent to sell at N27,200,001.60 after electric car maker, Tesla, suspended vehicle purchases using Bitcoin out of concern over the rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining.
The company’s CEO, Mr Elon Musk, on Wednesday night made the announcement, saying that it would resume accepting Bitcoin (and would consider selling more of it) once the process of mining Bitcoin transitions to more sustainable energy.
The company is also looking at other cryptocurrencies that use less than one per cent of Bitcoin’s energy/transaction.
“Cryptocurrency is a good idea on many levels and we believe it has a promising future, but this cannot come at great cost to the environment,” a part of the statement read.
Bitcoin uses up as much electricity annually as the Netherlands, according to one estimate even though other proponents like Twitter CEO, Mr Jack Dorsey, advocates that mining uses renewable energy.
In a filing to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in February, Tesla revealed that it bought $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin and it may invest in more of Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies in the future.
At that time, the company said it would start accepting bitcoin as a payment method for its products and this led to the prices of cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Dogecoin, skyrocketing in recent months.
Meanwhile, other cryptocurrencies have dipped, except Ethereum (ETH) which saw activity on the currency following the news as it rose by 1.2 per cent to N2,072,622.99.
However, the Ripple (XRP) depreciated by 10.6 per cent on Wednesday to trade at N651.20; the Litecoin (LTC) dropped 5.1 per cent to N187,999.00, while Tron (TRX) dipped by 5.2 per cent to N67.80.
Also, the United States Dollar Tether (USDT) declined by 6.4 per cent to N505.43, while the Dash (DASH) went down by 0.3 per cent to sell at N212,900.00.
