Bitcoin Crosses $40,000 After Musk Says Tesla Could Trade it Back

Bitcoin surged above $40,000 on Monday, after fresh swings over the weekend following tweets from Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who responded to criticism over his impact on the market and said that Tesla has sold its bitcoins but may resume trading with it.

Bitcoin has wobbled at Musk’s views for months since Tesla announced a $1.5 billion purchase of the cryptocurrency in February and said it would accept it as a payment medium. But he later returned to say that the electric car maker would not accept Bitcoin due to concerns about the heavy electricity used by the mining process used to extract the currency and the impact on climate change.

“When it is confirmed that miners are using a reasonable percentage of clean energy (in the order of 50 percent) and that this is sustainable in the future, Tesla will re-allow Bitcoin transactions,” Musk said on Twitter on Sunday.

Bitcoin climbed more than 9% after the tweet, breaking its 20-day moving average, and extended gains in Asia to reach $39,838.92.

The latest price reached 40,178.62 dollars, an increase of 2.99%, amid difficulties in breaking the relatively narrow price range prevailing this month.

Bitcoin is up by about a third this year, but has collapsed from a record peak above $60,000 amid a regulatory tightening in China and what appears to be waning Musk’s enthusiasm for the currency. Tesla’s stock is down about 30 percent since the company bought bitcoin.