CoinFlip CEO Daniel Polotsky asks Elon Musk to place his company’s ATMs at Tesla dealerships and discuss his prospects for the cryptocurrency.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the electric car maker now accepts bitcoin as payment for its vehicles.
“Now you can buy a Tesla with Bitcoin,” tweeted Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Wednesday. “The Bitcoin paid to Tesla will be retained as Bitcoin, not converted into fiat currency.”
The news, which was telegraphed by Musk in February, sent bitcoin up 4% to $ 57,120 a currency. At that price, the cryptocurrency was down 6.73% from its all-time closing high of $ 61,243 set on March 12.
Tesla’s shares rose with the announcement before falling.
| Ticker | Safety | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TSLA | TESLA, INC. | 664.37 | +2.21 | + 0.33% |
Tesla announced last month that it bought $ 1.5 billion in bitcoins amid efforts to “diversify and maximize returns” on its cash. The company said it could invest its money in more alternative assets, including digital currencies and gold bars, in the future.
At that time, Tesla also said it would start accepting bitcoin as payment in the near future.
Bitcoin gained greater acceptance from Corporate America last year, as investment firms put more money into the cryptocurrency. BlackRock Inc. and Morgan Stanley are among the Wall Street companies that have started to get involved with the cryptocurrency.
MicroStrategy Inc., meanwhile, led Corporate America’s onslaught on bitcoin, which also joined digital payment company Square Inc.
Microstrategy invested $ 2.171 billion in cash in the cryptocurrency to buy 90,531 bitcoins on February 24. The company’s CEO, Michael Saylor, was instrumental in Musk’s decision to invest Tesla’s money in digital currency.
“If you want to do your shareholders a $ 100 billion favor, convert the $ TSLA balance sheet from USD to #BTC,” he tweeted in December. “Other companies in the S&P 500 would follow its lead and, over time, increase and become a $ 1 trillion favor.”