Tesla CEO Elon Musk has announced the company is suspending the ability to purchase cars using cryptocurrency bitcoin, citing environmental concerns.
The move comes just a day after he appeared to support the use of another cryptocurrency, dogecoin, to purchase a vehicle. Tesla only started accepting bitcoin at the end of March.
In a statement posted on Twitter, Musk said the company was "concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel".
However, Tesla won't be selling any of the US$1.5 billion bitcoin it bought earlier this year.
"We intend to use it for transactions as soon as mining transitions to more sustainable energy. We are also looking at other cryptocurrencies that use <1% of bitcoin's energy/transaction," he wrote.
Musk is a long-time supporter of cryptocurrency and reaffirmed this in his statement, saying "Cryptocurrency is a good idea on many levels and we believe it has a promising future, but this cannot come at great cost to the environment."
His support of dogecoin had helped drive the value of the meme-inspired currency to record levels prior to his appearance on US comedy show Saturday Night Live last weekend.
When he called it a "hustle" in a comedy skit the value plummeted but recovered somewhat after yesterday's Twitter poll asking users whether Tesla should accept dogecoin.
