Billionaire Changpeng Zhao, CEO of crypto exchange Binance, pointed out Elon Musk’s double talk regarding the bitcoins owned by his company Tesla.
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June
3, 2021
4 min read
Elon Musk is embroiled in a new controversy and it seems that a new declared enemy has been won. Billionaire Changpeng Zhao , CEO of Binance , made a scathing comment mocking the Tesla CEO’s double talk regarding bitcoins.
On the one hand, Tesla is the second largest holder of Bitcoin in the world , and on the other it stopped accepting them as payment for their negative impact on the environment. The contradiction did not go unnoticed by the founder of one of the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchanges, who took to Twitter to point it out.
“When electricity is used to power cars, it is environmentally friendly. When electricity is used to operate the world’s most efficient financial networks, it is an environmental concern, ” Zhao tweeted.
When you use electricity to run cars, it’s environmentally friendly.
When you use electricity to run the most efficient financial networks in the world, it’s an environmental concern.
– CZ Binance (@cz_binance) May 31, 2021
Zhao’s message refers to a recent controversial decision by Elon Musk . In early May, the businessman announced that Tesla would no longer accept bitcoin as payment for its electric cars.
“Tesla has suspended vehicle purchases using Bitcoin. We are concerned about the increasing use of fossil fuels for mining and Bitcoin transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of all fuels, ” said the statement posted by Musk on Twitter. “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,” he added.
However, the CEO of SpaceX clarified that his company will not get rid of the cryptocurrencies it already owns . In February of this year, Tesla invested $ 1.5 billion in Bitcoin , making it the second largest holder of these in the world, only behind MicroStrategy , a company that offers data software.
“Tesla will not sell Bitcoin and we intend to use it for transactions as soon as mining moves to more sustainable energy. We are also looking for other cryptocurrencies that use less than 1% of the energy that Bitcoin uses per transaction, “ said Musk’s statement.
Tesla & Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/YSswJmVZhP
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 12, 2021
The Tesla news caused an alarming crash in the price of Bitcoin and virtually all cryptocurrencies. However, a few days ago, another tweet from Elon Musk made digital currencies rebound , noting that he is already working on finding solutions to reduce energy expenditure in Bitcoin mining and make it more sustainable for the planet.
“I spoke with the North American Bitcoin miners. They pledged to make public the current and planned use of renewable energy and to ask miners around the world to do so. Potentially promising, ” Elon Musk tweeted on May 24.
According to a study by the University of Cambridge cited by the BBC , the digital currency uses 121.36 terawatt hours per year, which exceeds the energy expenditure of countries such as Argentina and Norway.