Bitcoin rises above $30,000 as Tesla chief likely to welcome it back

Bitcoin rises back after witnessing another slump, surging past $30,000 today according to Coindesk. 

Once again, Elon Musk is behind the intense jump in value, as he reiterated his backing of Bitcoin during a panel held on Wednesday. 

The Tesla chief, who has been extremely vocal in the past about the environmental risks of Bitcoin mining, has confirmed during the “B Word” cryptocurrency conference that he will most likely resume accepting Bitcoin. 

“I wanted a little bit more due diligence to confirm that the percentage of renewable energy usage is most likely at or above 50 percent, and that there is a trend towards increasing that number, and if so, Tesla would resume accepting Bitcoin,” Musk said. 

This comes after the automaker head halted on accepting Bitcoin as a payment earlier in May due to its detrimental effect on the environment when mining the cryptocurrency. 

Only two months ago, Tesla began accepting cryptocurrencies as payments causing backlash from Tesla investors and environmentalists. 

The ironic notion that environmentally friendly electric vehicles can be bought through a cryptocurrency that uses tremendous energy took everyone by surprise, which forced Musk to stop issuing payments in Bitcoin. 

However, things are looking different now as Bitcoin rises and gains back its losses.  

During the live panel which also featured Twitter’s Jack Dorsey and Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood, Musk highlighted his support for Bitcoin and admitted that he holds a lot more Bitcoin than Dogecoin.  

The American billionaire confirmed that both of his companies Tesla and SpaceX utilize Bitcoin in their balance sheets. He also addressed claims that he was working on artificially increasing the price of the coin before selling it, in which the Tesla owner said: “I might pump, but I don’t dump… I definitely do not believe in getting the price high and selling… I would like to see Bitcoin succeed.” 

Bitcoin struggled in May to make up for its damages after the value of the total market decreased by almost half in just seven days. Following Musk’s statements, Bitcoin is up 6 percent, amounting to around $31,952.