Elon Musk took to Twitter this morning to announce that customers will soon be able to buy a new Tesla using bitcoin instead of fiat currency.
You can now buy a Tesla with Bitcoin
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 24, 2021
The move to accepting bitcoins as payment comes roughly a month after Tesla announced it bought $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin and that it had plans to enable bitcoin as a payment option in the future.
In a further tweet, Musk clarified that Tesla would not convert the bitcoin payments into fiat cash, and would instead hold onto the bitcoin as bitcoin.
Tesla is using only internal & open source software & operates Bitcoin nodes directly.
Bitcoin paid to Tesla will be retained as Bitcoin, not converted to fiat currency.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 24, 2021
The company also published a bitcoin FAQ on its website notifying customers that bitcoin is the only cryptocurrency it will accept. It also warned customers that if they attempt to send another type of cryptocurrency to Tesla’s bitcoin address, “we will not receive the transaction and it will likely result in a loss of funds for you.”
The company’s bitcoin terms and conditions also state that if someone pays the deposit for a Tesla vehicle in bitcoin and then asks for a refund, they could receive “significantly less” bitcoin back than they originally paid due to the volatility of the cryptocurrency.
Right now bitcoin payments are only available in the U.S., but Musk says the option will be available in other countries later this year.
Pay by Bitcoin capability available outside US later this year
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 24, 2021
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