LONDON: Tesla Inc expects to allow customers to pay for its electric vehicles with bitcoin soon, theon Monday , a move that could expand how the most popular cryptocurrency is used for real-world transactions.
The company made the disclosures in a section of its quarterly securities filing that also detailed its purchase of US$1.5 billion worth of bitcoin. If customers buy Teslas with bitcoin, the company may or may not liquidate those payments right away - which some experts read as an indication that Tesla might hold on to at least some of the coins and not sell them automatically.
"I recommend against purchasing big-ticket items with Bitcoin," he said. The"novelty" of doing so can quickly fade if the price rises dramatically, he said. Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk, who also helped launch PayPal, has expressed enthusiasm about cryptocurrencies online and industry sources say he has the technological expertise to build the required infrastructure.