World’s largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, has dropped by 12% as a result of Tesla’s announcement that it would no longer accept it as a means of payment during vehicle purchases.

According to Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk made via his Twitter handle on Wednesday, the car company is concerned about cryptocurrency’s effect on the environment.

CNN, citing cryptocurrency news website Coindesk, revealed that Bitcoin was down around 12% early Thursday morning, bringing the coin’s price down to about $50,900 (₦20,880,707.00)

The news comes a little more than three months after the business tycoon who ranks as 2nd richest man in the world first announced that Tesla would begin accepting bitcoin as payment.

Musk’s statement read: “Tesla has suspended vehicle purchases using Bitcoin. We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel.

“Cryptocurrency is a good idea on many levels and we believe it has a promising future, but this cannot come at great cost to the environment.

“Tesla will not be selling any Bitcoin and we intend to use it for transactions as soon as mining transitions to more sustainable energy. We are also looking at other cryptocurrencies that use <1% of Bitcoin’s energy/transaction.”

Recall that WUZUPNIGERIA reported three months ago that Musk invested $1.5 billion in Bitcoin and in the wake of the announcement, Bitcoin rose above $50,000, hitting a new record high of $50,602. It was last up 3.3% at $49,537.

At that time, Bitcoin rose around 72%, with most of the gains coming after the electric carmaker Tesla said it had bought $1.5 billion in bitcoin.