Musk: Tesla accepts bitcoin as payment, won’t convert it “to fiat currency”

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Tesla has begun accepting bitcoin as payment from car buyers in the continental US, and CEO Elon Musk said the company plans to expand the new payment option to other countries later this year.

Musk announced the news on Twitter today. "You can now buy a Tesla with 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," Musk wrote.

Tesla recently bought $1.5 billion in bitcoin, a move that sent the cryptocurrency's price soaring. A Tesla regulatory filing on February 8 said the company would begin accepting bitcoin as payment "in the near future." While Musk is betting big on bitcoin, customers may prefer to buy Tesla cars in dollars if they expect the price of bitcoin to keep rising.

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