Elon Musk’s recent tweet about “promising” developments on clean energy crypto mining ignited a surge in Bitcoin overnight.
According to CoinMarketCap, by 8:00am AEST, Bitcoin’s price had jumped 15 per cent in a 24-hour period – pushing US $39,100.
After a week of chaos where billions of dollars were wiped off the value of the world’s most popular cryptocurrency, this was welcoming news for Bitcoin investors.
Musk’s tweet indicated he was in discussions with Bitcoin miners over clean energy and sustainability issues of mining the crypto.
Spoke with North American Bitcoin miners. They committed to publish current & planned renewable usage & to ask miners WW to do so. Potentially promising.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 24, 2021
At the time of Musk’s tweet, Bitcoin was trading around US $38,075, according to CoinMarketCap.
Within minutes after Must tweeted, the price had leaped over US $39,500.
Michael Saylor, CEO of the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin (Tesla is 2nd), MicroStrategy, simultaneously posted on Twitter saying he had hosted a meeting between Musk and leading Bitcoin miners in North America.
The meeting resulted in a newly formed Bitcoin Mining Council, focused on promoting the adoption of sustainable cryptocurrency mining initiatives.
Yesterday I was pleased to host a meeting between @elonmusk & the leading Bitcoin miners in North America. The miners have agreed to form the Bitcoin Mining Council to promote energy usage transparency & accelerate sustainability initiatives worldwide. https://t.co/EHgLZ9zvDK
— Michael Saylor (@michael_saylor) May 24, 2021
Musk has been an avid fan of several cryptocurrencies, but critics have pointed out the energy costs of mining Bitcoin are unsuited with clean energy Tesla.
The news comes after the recent spotlight on cryptocurrency mining operations around the world. Earlier this month, Musk announced Tesla would reverse plans to accept Bitcoin as payment for its cars and cited Bitcoin’s high environmental cost as the reason.
Aside from a serious focus on the environmental impact of Bitcoin mining, the industry is also facing an intensifying crackdown on trading activities by Chinese authorities.
Musk’s tweet underlined how the Tesla founder can significantly move the cryptocurrency market.
For more information on how the cryptocurrency market has been affected in recent weeks from Elon Musk and Chinese authorities, check out our story Cryptocurrency Market Spirals Overnight.
