By
Godfrey Benjamin
May 10th, 2024
According to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, people who want to buy Tesla cars can now pay for vehicles in Bitcoin (BTC).
When it was announced that Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) had purchased $1.5 billion worth of BTC, the automaker revealed that people would soon get the possibility to pay for Tesla cars in Bitcoin. And now these plans have become a reality. Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced in a tweet that buyers can now purchase any of the company’s electric vehicles using Bitcoin.
You can now buy a Tesla with Bitcoin
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 24, 2021
The issue is that now this option is available to people in the US only. However, buyers from other countries are expected to be granted this possibility later this year.
Pay by Bitcoin capability available outside US later this year
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 24, 2021
The newly-introduced BTC payment would be in addition to the existing traditional card payment option. Tesla’s vehicles remain priced in USD and customers who wants to pay in BTC will pay the Bitcoin equivalence of the said product.
Elon Musk further revealed details on how Tesla plans to handle payments made in Bitcoin. In a separate tweet, Musk said Tesla is using only internal and open source software and directly operate Bitcoin nodes. In the same tweet, Musk stated that all Bitcoin paid to the company will remain in the digital asset and not converted to fiat currency.
Tesla Provides Guide on Newly-Introduced Bitcoin Payment Method
Tesla has published a series of questions and answers to guide customers on the new payment method. Tesla said customers can either scan a QR code or copy and paste the company’s Bitcoin address to make payments. The company said payment confirmation will be sent through email and the process may take up to six hours.
As Tesla accepts Bitcoin payments, payments made with altcoin may lead to loss of funds for the sender. The company warned that customers should be careful when making payments with Bitcoin because BTC transactions cannot be reversed. Inputting a wrong Bitcoin address will lead to the loss of digital assets.
When Tesla revealed its $1.5 billion BTC investment and first announced plans to start accepting Bitcoin as a form of payment, the price of Bitcoin increase. At the time, Bitcoin surged to a record high of over $43,000. Now, hopes are high that Bitcoin will pull in more gains following the latest development.
At press time, Bitcoin is up 3.29% to $56,409.37.
Tesla stock is currently at premarket trading of $673.70, a 1.74% gain over its previous close of $662.16. Tesla has spiked 513.96% over the past year and more than 2% in the last three months.
The company has also been recording some losses. Since the beginning of January, TSLA has declined more than 6% and dropped further by 10.76% over the past month. In the last five days, the electric vehicle company has plunged 5.65%.