Elon Musk on Twitter just announced that you can now buy a Tesla car with Bitcoin. Musk’s announcement comes almost a month after Tesla said in a filing the decision was part of its broad investment policy as a company and was aimed at diversifying and maximizing its returns on cash. It said it had invested an aggregate $1.5 billion in bitcoin under the changed policy and could “acquire and hold digital assets from time to time or long-term”. Bitcoin also surged more than 10% the day after to a record high of $43,625 after Tesla’s disclosure. Bitcoin, which has set new record highs in recent months after a rollercoaster ride over the past decade, has also drawn support from major financial institutions this year. The world’s biggest money manager Blackrock recently changed a handful of investment mandates to allow some of its funds to invest in the currency.
Musk’s tweet on the development came with new additional inputs, for example – it is currently only limited to the US, but will open up to other countries soon.
You can now buy a Tesla with Bitcoin— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 24, 2021
Pay by Bitcoin capability available outside US later this year— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 24, 2021
And also with a disclaimer.
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.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 24, 2021
Twitter, however, wanted to know if Tesla accepted the Internet’s favorite currency: Dogecoin.
I wanna buy it with Dogecoin 😂— AUG | Lucas (@CreaTioN_o_0) March 24, 2021
While there is no confirmation on dogecoin yet, Tesla buying Bitcoin by the billions has arguably been the biggest news in the crypto world of late. Even as the Indian government continues to be bearish on cryptocurrencies apart from those controlled centrally, Tesla spending $1.5 billion on Bitcoin to keep the digital currency on its sheets is the first such move by a big corporation, underlining a faint presence of Bitcoin’s everyday applications in its regular discourse. However, Tesla’s investment in Bitcoin is unusual for a publicly listed company, particularly given the most common risks of cryptocurrencies. This very unusual move may have actually put the entire blockchain and cryptography technologies at a key crossroad.
Read more about why Tesla Buying Bitcoin May Have Put Blockchain Tech, Cryptocurrencies at a Key Junction.