Bitcoin plunges as Elon Musk puts environmental impact under scrutiny

The price of Bitcoin nosedived after Tesla CEO Elon Musk said his company would no longer be accepting the cryptocurrency as payment due to its ties to fossil fuels.

The price of Bitcoin nosedived after Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced his company would no longer be accepting the cryptocurrency as payment due to its ties to fossil fuels in a tweet that sparked a heated debate on the digital currency's environmental impact. "Tesla has suspended vehicle purchases using Bitcoin. We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel," Musk wrote in a tweet Wednesday evening. "Cryptocurrency is a good idea on many levels and we believe it has a promising future, but this cannot come at a great cost to the environment." The electric vehicle company chief executive added that Tesla will not be selling any of the Bitcoin it currently holds -- which amounts to some $1.5 billion, according to a February SEC filing -- but will use it for transactions "as soon as mining transitions to more sustainable energy." In a follow-up tweet on Thursday, Musk added, "To be clear, I strongly believe in crypto, but it can’t drive a massive increase in fossil fuel use, especially coal."