Tesla chief executive Elon Musk has said that the company’s electric cars can now be bought using the cryptocurrency bitcoin.
“You can now buy a Tesla with Bitcoin,” Musk tweeted on 24 March.
Musk said that bitcoin Tesla earns through car sales would be held as bitcoin and not converted to cash.
“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,” he wrote.
At 7.44am GMT on 24 March the price of bitcoin was $55,401 according to crypto trading website Bitstamp.
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Tesla revealed in an 8 February regulatory filing that it has bought $1.5bn of bitcoin, sending the price of the cryptocurrency soaring.
The crypto’s price passed $48,000 for the first time on 9 February, the day after Tesla announced its investment in the cryptocurrency.
The company also said in the same filing that it would soon start accepting payment in bitcoin for its cars.
“We expect to begin accepting bitcoin as a form of payment for our products in the near future, subject to applicable laws and initially on a limited basis, which we may or may not liquidate upon receipt,” Tesla said in the 8 February filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Tesla said it had invested in bitcoin to “diversify and maximise returns on our cash that is not required to maintain adequate operating liquidity”.
In a later filing on 15 March Tesla revealed that Musk’s job title was now “Technoking of Tesla” and the company’s chief financial officer Zach Kirkhorn was now known as “Master of Coin”.
READ Bitcoin surges to record high of $48,000 after Elon Musk’s Tesla invests $1.5bn
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