Tesla will resume taking Bitcoin as payment once miners go 50% green, Musk says

The comments provide a first benchmark for reinstating bitcoin payments at Tesla.

Tesla will resume accepting bitcoin (BTC, +11.04%) as payment once the cryptocurrency’s power-hungry miners go halfway green, CEO Elon Musk tweeted Sunday. The news appears to have driven the price of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies up.

• Musk halted Tesla’s months-old crypto foray in mid-May citing environmental concerns. But “when there’s confirmation of reasonable (~50%) clean energy usage by miners with positive future trend, Tesla will resume allowing Bitcoin transactions,” he said in the tweet.
• It is unclear how Musk will fact-check miners‘ clean energy usage as there is widespread debate over where the industry currently stands. Even so, the comments provide a first benchmark for reinstating bitcoin payments at Tesla.
• Musk's tweet also reiterates his defense of having sold 10% of the electric vehicle maker's bitcoin stash in Q1 and would also seem to indicate the company hasn't sold anymore.

• Musk's tweet may have been the propellent to the price of bitcoin which started a sharp upward move about an hour after the tweet was sent. In recent trading, bitcoin was changing hands at $39,200.21, up 9.66%, and leading a sea of green on the price page for other cryptocurrencies.