--- title: "Bitcoin Loses Enormous Amount of Value After Elon’s Flip Flop" description: "In a blindsiding move that caught the cryptocurrency world by surprise, Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted that the car company would suspend car purchases using Bitcoin. The reasoning: concerns over Bitcoin mining harming the environment. As expected, the cryptocurrency market reacted in a big way, with as much as $385.85 billion being wiped off the […]" date: "2021-05-13" modified: "2021-05-13" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/bitcoin-value-elon-flip-flop" categories: - "Bitcoin" - "Blockchain" - "Cryptocurrency" - "Future Society" tags: - "bitcoin" - "cryptocurrencies" - "elon musk" - "the digest" --- # Bitcoin Loses Enormous Amount of Value After Elon’s Flip Flop ![Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted that the car company would suspend car purchases using Bitcoin. The market reacted negatively.]() *\Image: Victor Tangermann\* ## Flip Flop In a blindside that caught the cryptocurrency world by surprise, Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted last night that the car company [would suspend car purchases using Bitcoin](). The reasoning: concerns over Bitcoin mining harming the environment. "We are concerned abut rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel," Musk said. As expected, the cryptocurrency market reacted in a big way, with as much as $385.85 billion being wiped off the crypto market, as [*CNBC* reports](). It's a puzzling move that goes to show just how much influence Musk has over the entire cryptocurrency market — and that shows, once again, that nobody can predict the mercurial billionaire's next move. ## Buy and Sell The value of bitcoin dipped below the $50,000 mark for the first time in weeks after Musk's announcement. In the long game, though the cryptocurrency is still up 400 percent year over year, as *CNBC* points out. The token has since stabilized at around the $50,500 mark by press time. The company started [accepting Bitcoin earlier this year](), making a $1.5 billion investment in the token in the process. Then in late April, Tesla [announced that it had sold some ten percent]() of its Bitcoin holdings, boosting Q1 revenues by some $101 million. Bitcoin mining has always come at a great environmental cost, requiring astronomical amounts of energy to complete "proof of work" calculations to find the next block of the Bitcoin blockchain. That fact seems to have caught up with Musk, despite his company's recent actions, and his own fondness for the alternative cryptocurrency Dogecoin (which only requires a [fraction of the energy]() to mine compared to Bitcoin). Tesla, though, has greatly benefited from its investment in the cryptocurrency. It's hard to say what Musk and Tesla's main motivations were behind the move. And yet again, Musk had to step in to make up for the company's total lack of a PR department — so we may never find out. **READ MORE:** [As much as $365 billion wiped off cryptocurrency market after Tesla stops car purchases with bitcoin]() \[*CNBC*\] **More on Bitcoin:** *[Elon Musk: Tesla Immediately Suspending All Bitcoin Car Purchases]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()