The Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) price is down 3.8% over the past 24 hours. According to data from CoinDesk, 1 Bitcoin is currently worth US$52,041.94 (AU$68396.12).
That's seen the market cap of the world's largest cryptocurrency dip below the US$1 trillion mark to US$975 billion.
Still a tidy sum.
And with renewed Bitcoin investor interest stirred by Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) founder Elon Musk, some analysts are tipping renewed momentum for the digital token.
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Elon Musk will accept Bitcoin for Tesla vehicles
After making global headlines earlier this year when Tesla invested US$1.5 billion into Bitcoin, Elon Musk is at it again.
The eccentric billionaire, reported by Forbes to be worth more than US$165 billion, sent out a number of tweets overnight Aussie time. These tweets revealed that you can now buy a Tesla with Bitcoin. Though that's only possible within the United States at the moment. Musk said the company will accept Bitcoin payments for its vehicles outside of the US later in 2021.
Tesla's electric vehicles (EVs) will still be priced in US dollars. However, Musk indicated that Tesla will hold onto the Bitcoin it receives for its EVs rather than selling them for fiat currency.
A quick google search tells me you can pick up a base Tesla Model S for AU$132,718. Or you can once the offering expands to Australia.
Let's say you have 2 Bitcoin in your digital wallet.
At today's Bitcoin price that means you'd need 1.9438 Bitcoin to drive the Model S off the lot. Meaning you'd have .0562 Bitcoin left over from your original 2 Bitcoin, or 5.62 million satoshis.
A satoshi, if you're not familiar, is worth 100 millionth of 1 Bitcoin. They're named after the mysterious founder of the cryptocurrency, Satoshi Nakamoto.
Why the Bitcoin price could rise further over the longer term
Simon Peters is a crypto asset analyst at brokerage eToro. According to Peters emailed comments (as quoted by Forbes):
Tesla's decision to both accept payment for its cars in bitcoin and hold that bitcoin on its balance sheet rather than convert it to dollars will likely build more momentum for the crypto asset.
Tesla and other companies are showing that crypto is here to stay, and its mainstream adoption is only going to increase. In terms of market dynamics, as more companies hold bitcoin on their balance sheet, so the finite supply is depleted even more, and this is likely to cause a supply-side squeeze and boost prices over the longer-term.
