Tesla CEO Elon Musk made a uncommon look on his crypto Twitter (also referred to as X) timeline early Tuesday morning, praising Bitcoin's power consumption. This appears to point a change of coronary heart a number of years after criticizing the ability consumption of Bitcoin mining in 2021.
Musk weighs in on the controversy that AI will develop into a “new world arms race” and talks about treasured metals and Bitcoin Costs are hovering as a result of “funding an AI arms race is 'sneaky.'”
Downgrade buying and selling refers to traders searching for a hedge in opposition to a decline within the greenback or different fiat currencies, similar to silver, gold, or BTC.
Musk agreed, including, “Because of this Bitcoin is predicated on power. You’ll be able to concern pretend fiat foreign money, and each authorities in historical past has carried out it, however you may't pretend power.”
In doing so, he reiterated one of many important arguments the Bitcoin neighborhood has used to fend off criticism of its power consumption. The rationale is that governments can create extra money, however Bitcoin solely goes into circulation when miners expend power processing new blocks of transactions and earn them as rewards.
Subsequent, one in every of BTC's most vocal advocates, Michael Saylor, co-founder and govt chairman of Technique, joined us for a chat. “The legal guidelines of nature are higher than the legal guidelines of man,” he mentioned.
Musk first talked about Bitcoin in an interview on the Vainness Truthful New Institution Summit in 2014.
reality.
Because of this Bitcoin is predicated on power. It’s potential to concern pretend fiat foreign money, and each authorities in historical past has carried out so, however it’s unimaginable to pretend power.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 14, 2025
The interviewer began by speaking about PayPal, which was spun off from its mum or dad firm eBay on the time, after which requested Musk about Bitcoin.
“I feel Bitcoin might be a very good factor, however basically it’s, and I feel it's primarily a car for unlawful transactions,” Musk responded. “That's not essentially a foul factor. It's utterly dangerous. There could also be some issues that shouldn't be unlawful.”
He added: “By the best way, I don't personal a single penny of Bitcoin.”
Years later, in 2017, when folks began speculating that Musk was the pseudonymous Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto, Musk denied the rumors. “It's not true. A good friend despatched me some BTC (just a few years in the past) and I don't know the place it’s,” he mentioned on X.
In early 2021, Tesla began accepting Bitcoin as a cost technique. However after just a few months it stopped.
On the time, Musk criticized Bitcoin's power consumption, tweeting, “Vitality utilization developments over the previous few months have been insane,” together with a screenshot of the Cambridge Bitcoin Vitality Consumption Index. He went on to clarify that electrical automobile producers will settle for BTC once more in the event that they see “affordable use of fresh power by miners,” including that affordable use means 50% of all Bitcoin miners.
In the meantime, Tesla has held Bitcoin since February 2021, in accordance with BitcoinTreasuries. The corporate's 11,509 BTC is price roughly $1.28 billion at present costs. Tesla, which trades on the Nasdaq beneath the ticker TSLA, as soon as owned extra Bitcoin.
At its peak in Might 2021, Tesla's Bitcoin treasury contained 43,200 BTC. Nevertheless, the corporate offered a few of its shares in the identical month it stopped accepting Bitcoin funds, after which offered 75% of its shares in July 2022, citing “Bitcoin impairment.” On the time, the sale generated roughly $936 million.
