Bitcoin prices slumped 17% on Wednesday night, before recovering some of the losses, after Elon Musk tweeted that Tesla would suspend accepting the cryptocurrency as payment for its cars, due to environmental concerns.
The outlook. Whether Tesla did sell any cars for bitcoins remains unclear and the company isn’t saying. Meanwhile, the episode shows yet again that “if one person can dramatically alter its spending power, the ‘stable store of value’ criteria of a currency is not met,” as noted by UBS chief economist Paul Donovan.