Elon Musk has a complicated relationship with cryptocurrency
(Picture: PA Archive)Elon Musk has announced Tesla will sell the majority of its Bitcoin holdings, just one year after investing in the cryptocurrency.
The electric carmaker has confirmed the sale of three-quarters of its investment in Bitcoin, which has seen its value halve since the start of this year. The price of one coin has fallen from nearly $70,000 to $25,000 since November 2021.
The BBC reported that the company has instead invested £782million made from the sale in traditional currency.
Tesla boss Mr Musk shared a tweet in May 2021 that raised his environmental concerns about Bitcoin’s investment in fossil fuels but said the company would not be selling.
“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,” the statement read.
Tesla last year stopped accepting Bitcoin as payment for its cars. In a recent trading update, the company said the crypto investment had hurt its profitability although it has not been formally stated if this or environmental factors were behind the sale.
In the past few months, Mr Musk has also seen his plan to buy Twitter fall though with the social media giant now taking him to court over the $44bn takeover.
The world’s richest man has also had issues in his personal life, breaking up with musician Grimes and continuing to be estranged from his father Errol - who has now fathered two children with his former stepdaughter.
