Musk Sends Bitcoin Tumbling With Shock U-Turn on Payments

In a post on Twitter Wednesday, Musk cited concerns about “rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions,” while signaling that Tesla might accept other cryptocurrencies if they are much less energy intensive.

The largest cryptocurrency dropped as much as 15% to just above $46,000, before paring some of the retreat.

Musk’s move comes after Tesla disclosed in February that it had purchased $1.5 billion in Bitcoin and planned to accept it as a payment.

Tesla’s website, which had a support page dedicated to Bitcoin, noted that the token was the only cryptocurrency that Tesla accepts in the continental U.S.

Optimism grew after Mastercard Inc., Bank of New York Mellon Corp.

Bitcoin mining is consuming 66 times more electricity than it did back in late 2015, and the carbon emissions associated with it will likely face increasing scrutiny, according to a recent Citigroup Inc.

It’s unclear what prompted the decision and Musk and Zachary Kirkhorn, Tesla’s chief financial officer, didn’t immediately respond to an email inquiry for comment.

The data centers that host Dfinity nodes will be open to anyone who has the technical skill and hardware necessary to meet the Internet Computer’s standards, Carlson-Wee said.Even with the changes Ethereum is going through to improve its speed and performance it won’t be able to compete with what the Internet Computer will enable, he said.

In a case that was promptly labelled “bogus” by one defendant, Craig Wright is demanding that developers allow him to retrieve around 111,000 bitcoin held at two digital addresses that he does not have private keys for.

The Tesla chief executive said that his company would no longer be taking bitcoin as payment for cars, leading its price to tumble and taking other major currencies with it.

“We’re still getting on the aftershock of that consumer price index release and the expectations now from the market that the Fed will be forced to do something about inflation,” IG Market analyst Kyle Rodda said.

that have invested in the cryptocurrency, Son was noncommittal.“There’s a lot of discussion over if it’s a good thing or a bad thing, what’s the true value or is it in a bubble — honestly speaking, I don’t know,” Son said at the tech and investing giant’s earnings news conference.However, Son added that the popularity of the cryptocurrency has made it into a platform that “can’t be ignored,” like diamonds or bonds, he said.

Former Nissan Motor executive Greg Kelly denied helping ousted boss Carlos Ghosn hide earnings, saying at his trial in Tokyo on Wednesday that his only goal had been to retain a chief executive who could have been lured away by a rival automaker.

Still, Covid-19 flare-ups in many parts of Asia, as well as pushback from China, have complicated the global picture.“The moves today feel like a consolidation phase, there may also be some investors removing bullish trades following the resumption of the Colonial pipeline,” said Daniel Hynes, senior commodities strategist at Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd.

consumer prices on Wednesday triggered a global rates selloff, sending benchmark gilt yields to their highest level in around two months and spurring traders to bring forward their expectations for a BOE rate hike.The central bank traditionally shifts its key interest rate by multiples of 25 basis points, though it cut rates by 15 basis points in March 2020, at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

— The surging cost of commodities to industries and households is a threat to China’s economic growth and the purchasing power of its citizenry.As prices soar for everything from the copper and steel used in construction, to the coal that heats homes and powers factories, to the corn that feeds animals, what can Beijing do to control the record-breaking rally?The answer is complicated by several factors, including policies on pollution and imports that have only served to exacerbate supply constraints.

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