Elon Musk-led electric car company, Tesla, has informed the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in a quarterly filing on Monday that it may restart the practice of transacting in cryptocurrencies for its products and services. Earlier Tesla had suspended accepting bitcoin in May, citing environmental concerns. The company explained that during the nine months ended September 20, it “purchased an aggregate of $1.50 billion in bitcoin.”
Tesla’s balance sheet shows bitcoin worth $1.26 billion.
In its Q3 earnings report, Tesla’s balance sheet shows bitcoin worth $1.26 billion after reporting bitcoin-related impairments in the past two quarters. Tesla explained that during the nine months ended September 20, it “purchased an aggregate of $1.50 billion in bitcoin.” the SEC filing further reveals that during the three months ended March 31, Tesla “accepted bitcoin as a payment for sales of certain of our products in specified regions, subject to applicable laws.” However, as reported earlier, the company noted that it “suspended this practice in May 2021.
Tesla suspended bitcoin payments citing environmental concerns.
The electric car company, whose market cap hit $1 trillion for the first time earlier this week, explained that it “suspended bitcoin payments” due to concerns “about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel.” Tesla CEO Elon Musk then tried to convince bitcoin miners to use renewable energy. In May, he spoke with North American bitcoin miners, after which they formed a Bitcoin Mining Council to “promote energy usage transparency & accelerate sustainability initiatives worldwide.” Ho
