The price of bitcoin is once again approaching $40.000, after a post by Tesla CEO Elon Musk that he had discussions with bitcoin mining companies about the viability of the cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin traded at $3796 on Tuesday and has risen more than 4% in the last 24 hours, according to CoinDesk.
Almost all other major cryptocurrencies are also trading higher. The price of Ethereum has risen more than 13% to $2.550 in the last 24 hours, while Dogecoin has seen its price rise more than 7% to 34 cents a coin.
Bitcoin, the world’s most popular cryptocurrency, rose a few minutes after Musk tweeted:
“Spoke with North American Bitcoin miners. They committed to publish current & planned renewable usage & to ask miner WW to do so. Potentially promising”.
Within minutes, the price shot up to more than $39.500.
Musk has been a big supporter of cryptocurrencies, sparking a rally in their prices, including bitcoin, several times over the past year. His tweets and comments about cryptocurrencies often drive prices up or down.
It is recalled that in February Tesla revealed that it bought bitcoin worth $1.5 billion and that it would accept it as a method of payment. The company later announced that it made a net profit of $101 million from bitcoin sales during the quarter, helping to increase its net profit to a record in the first quarter.
However, Musk’s relationship with bitcoin appears to have changed earlier this month, when he wrote on Twitter on May 12th that the company had “suspended vehicle purchases” using bitcoin amid concerns about “rapidly increasing fossil fuel use“, for bitcoin mining.
The bitcoin rally this week comes after heavy losses in the cryptocurrency market last week, with bitcoin falling below $32.000 on Sunday.
