Elon Musk says he still ‘strongly believes in crypto’ after contentious bitcoin tweets

(POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Elon Musk says he still “strongly believes in crypto” after a series of tweets that led the markets in digital currencies to plunge.

“To be clear, I strongly believe in crypto, but it can’t drive a massive increase in fossil fuel use, especially coal,” he wrote in a new post.

Before that, he had indicated that he was support of the introduction of a carbon tax, which would charge extra levies on companies that burn fossil fuels.

“It is high time there was a carbon tax!” he posted.

Mr Musk’s clarification came after he announced that Tesla would not long take bitcoin as payment for its cars, pointing to the cryptocurrency’s impact on the environment.

“Tesla has suspended vehicle purchases using Bitcoin. We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel”, Mr Musk had written in a statement attached to the previous tweet..

“Cryptocurrency is a good idea on many levels and we believe it has a promising future, but this cannot come at a great cost to the environment.

“Tesla will not be selling any Bitcoin and 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.”

Soon after, he posted a link to the University of Cambridge’s estimate of the energy use of bitcoin, and called it “insane”.

Before those posts, Mr Musk had been among the most famous evangelists of cryptocurrencies, particularly bitcoin and dogecoin.

But in recent days he urged investors to use “caution”, and suggested that people should be carefu with their investments.

The statement reversed Mr Musk’s announcement, tweeted in March, that the company would start taking payment in cryptocurrency.

It led to a significant drop in value, not only for bitcoin but in other cryptocurrencies too.

The post also helped encourage interest in “altcoins”, or alternatives to bitcoin, some of which aim to more sustainable in their energy use.