The inevitable has happened: You can now purchase a Tesla vehicle with Bitcoin. This is according to Tesla CEO, pardon, Technoking Elon Musk, who tweeted it on Wednesday. Tesla announced this would be happening in February, when the company said it purchased US$1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin. In an SEC filing, Tesla said it might start accepting Bitcoin as a form of payment "in the near future." Musk also shared a few details on how this works in the background.
He says Tesla operates its own Bitcoin nodes and uses "internal and open source software" for the bitcoin payment system. Notably for those bullish on the price of Bitcoin, Musk also said the company plans to retain the bitcoins it receives as bitcoins, instead of converting them to fiat currency. Finally, Musk said Bitcoin payments are only available in the U.S. right now, but they should become available outside the U.S. "later this year." It's hard to estimate the real impact of this news. Once thought to be the future of payments, Bitcoin is far more used as a store of value, as well as a speculative asset, primarily due to its volatility. For many Tesla buyers, it certainly won't be the most practical means of payment. Still, the market perceived this as good news: The price of Bitcoin went sharply up following Musk's announcement, from roughly US$53,700 to US$55,400.
