TL;DR Breakdown
- Tesla $1.5 billion buy-in is pushing Bitcoin price.
- Active addresses also increase drastically.
- Bitcoin is held responsible for climate change.
- Would Bitcoin crash to pieces in the longer run?
Elon Musk’s Tesla just announced $1.6 billion Bitcoin purchase and the buy-in pushed the Bitcoin price to over $43000 in a flash rise right after the news hit the market. The king of cryptocurrency is building on the momentum and managed to hit the new all-time high above $47000 in the past 24-hours. The news did not push only Bitcoin to the new high but the cryptocurrency market as a whole.
In the past 24 hours Bitcoin has seen an over 17 percent increase, Ethereum saw over six percent increase, Polkadot saw an over six percent increase, while Ripple saw an over seven percent increase in the price with most of the cryptocurrency market trending in greens.
Tesla and Bitcoin relation
Tesla invested in the king of cryptocurrency and is also adopting it as a valid payment system for Tesla cars. This is one of the most important milestones of the year when it comes to Bitcoin adoption. Following the buy-in, both Bitcoin price and TESLA stock prices rocketed sky-high. Elon Musk has been a long-time admirer of Bitcoin but without any serious actions. The first move came as a surprise, while the king is now facing serious issues on a global scale. If the king plummets Musk and Tesla have much at stake. For now, the Bitcoin price predictions are coming in strong for further rise towards $50000.
Bitcoin active addresses jump
The year 2021 has so far proved to be the year of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. In January, 2021 GlassNode reported that the active BTC addresses have hit the 22 million mark with over 22.3 million active addresses as of January 2021.
The current Tesla move is likely to push the adoption, further bringing new members and reassuring Wall Street investors. If the current bullish momentum persists, regardless of a retrace towards $43000, the king will likely stabilise above the $50000 mark.
Dark shadows loom over Bitcoin
Despite being branded as the “Digital Gold”, amidst all the hustle and bustle, troubles are not over for Bitcoin just yet. The current global Bitcoin mining requires immense computing power, and the recent highs have brought on new miners while the old ones have sprung back to life at the same time. The Carbon Dioxide (CO2) footprint is increasing rapidly, and as of today, it has surpassed 37 million tons per annum. That is equal to the annual CO2 footprint of New Zealand.
Bitcoin’s power consumption has increased from 9.6 Terawatt-hours in 2017 to 77.8 in 2021, a Bloomberg article reported. On the other hand, the World Economic Forum is now actively campaigning against global warming and favouring anti-carbon emission protocol adoption worldwide. Given the hatred Bitcoin has faced in the past and the rise of central bank digital currencies, a ban on Bitcoin could cause serious troubles for investors. Nigeria has already taken steps in this direction while Iran and other countries are also skeptical of the king.
Many data sources suggest that economic and environmental specialists are likely to favor Proof of Stake cryptocurrencies in case of a blanket ban on the king given the rising carbon footprint across the globe. In such a situation, Ethereum is likely to serve as the fallback cryptocurrency of choice. However, until such legislations take form, Bitcoin is likely to enjoy new highs each passing month.
