Leading cryptocurrency, Bitcoin dropped to its lowest point in almost three weeks, Wednesday after Tesla CEO, Elon Musk said the electric-car company will discontinue accepting bitcoin as a form of payment due to environmental concerns.
In a tweet on Wednesday, Musk said:“We are concerned about the rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel.
The electric car maker will not sell Bitcoin, but intends to use the digital currency for transactions as soon as “mining transitions to more sustainable energy.”
Bitcoin, the world’s biggest digital currency by market capitalisation, fell nearly 8 percent after the tweet according to data from cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase.
At around 01:00 UTC on Thursday evening, bitcoin’s price fell from $54,800 to a low of $46,294, according to CoinDesk 20 data.
Prices have since rebounded slightly and are currently changing hands for around $48,500.
Hourly sell volume has also shot up to its highest point in over two days to levels not seen since May 10.
