Bitcoin’s value has plunged to a three-month low today after digital coin advocate Elon Musk whipped up further speculation that Tesla could be looking to get out of the world’s largest cryptocurrency. He raised questions over the platform recently, expressing concern over the digital coin’s energy consumption and Tesla’s acceptance of the coin as currency. But what exactly happened to the market today?
The cryptocurrency market faced an extremely difficult day on May 17 amid continued concerns about the climate implications of digital coins and more comments from Elon Musk.
The SpaceX founder has become increasingly sceptical about Bitcoin in recent days.
He announced Tesla would be getting rid of Bitcoin as a way to pay for purchases.
Many economists and cryptocurrency experts said the digital currency market crash would pause for a period, but for Bitcoin, the downward trend has continued.
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Mr Musk also commented on the climate impact of cryptocurrency.
He said: “We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal.”
Two-thirds of Bitcoin to date has been mined, which means created through computing algorithms, in China, using data centres reliant on electricity generated by coal.
The US cryptocurrency market has rapidly expanded meaning it now requires vast quantities of energy to function.
Overall, currently, the price of Bitcoin is down 3.9 percent, ethereum is down 3.15 percent and dogecoin is down 3.98 percent in the past 24 hours as of 8.06pm on May 17.
In addition, many of the digital coins have seen a sustained fall in the past seven days, with Bitcoin dropping 22.59 percent, Ethereum falling 18,05 percent and Dogecoin increasing by 5.76 percent.
Even Cardano, which promotes itself as a sustainable coin has suffered amid the downward trend of digital coins losing 3.92 in the past 24 hours and 19.92 percent increase in the last seven days.
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