Tesla approves Bitcoin payment in U.S

Tesla Inc. now accepts bitcoin as payment for its cars in the US, CEO Elon Musk announced on his Twitter.

You can now buy a Tesla with Bitcoin

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 24, 2021

The option to pay using the cryptocurrency now appears on the company’s US website, where it’s available alongside the traditional card payment option. Musk said that the option to pay with bitcoin will be available to other countries “later this year.”

Pay by Bitcoin capability available outside US later this year

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 24, 2021

As well as confirming the availability of the new payment option, Musk offered some details on how Tesla is handling the cryptocurrency. “Tesla is using only internal & open source software & operates Bitcoin nodes directly,” he said in a follow-up tweet, “Bitcoin paid to Tesla will be retained as Bitcoin, not converted to fiat currency.”

Tesla announced its intention to start accepting bitcoin as payment a little over a month ago in its annual 10-K report when it said it would be adding the option in the “near future.” In the same filing, the company said it had also invested a total of $1.5 billion in the cryptocurrency. The news sent the price of bitcoin up to over $43,000, an all-time high at the time. As of this writing, 1 bitcoin is now worth a little over $56,000.

Suzan O/ REU/NM