Tesla Inc.’s electric vehicles can now be bought with bitcoin, according to Tesla release.
- “You can now buy a Tesla with bitcoin,” founder and chief executive officer Elon Musk announced via Twitter.
- The bitcoin payment option will be available outside the United States later this year, as Musk tagged the digital coin as “the new gold.”
- Musk said bitcoin payments will not be converted into traditional currency, as Tesla was using “internal and open source software.” He did not elaborate.
- The digital currency rose over 4% after Musk’s announcement, and was last trading at $56,429.
- Tesla in February bought $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin, sending the cryptocurrency to a record high of nearly $62,000. Musk also last month criticised conventional cash as it “has negative real interest, only a fool wouldn’t look elsewhere.”
- Uber and General Motors Co. are also looking into the possibility of accepting bitcoin as payment.