Tesla Starts Bitcoin But Once Keeps Crypto Dogecoin Joke As Payment Method ⋆ ZyCrypto

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Electric car maker Tesla has removed source code that once enabled BTC payments. However, the Elon Musk-owned company retains the OG meme Dogecoin (DOGE) cryptocurrency as a payment option.

Payment option accepted by DOGE for Tesla Merch

Crypto journalist Colin Wu drew attention to rumors circulating on Crypto Twitter that claim Bitcoin and Dogecoin are present on the source code of Teslas payment page. After digging deeper, Wu discovered that BTC and DOGE have been present in the source code of electric vehicle manufacturers since January this year.

The Hong Kong-based reporter observed that Tesla did not remove the source code when it ended the BTC payment option in May 2021. Tesla began accepting Bitcoin as a payment method for its electric cars in late March 2021 after purchasing $1.5 billion worth of the asset. The pilot proved to be short-lived following concerns about the high power consumption of Bitcoins and was quickly dropped.

Wu reviewed Teslas payment page and found that the company ultimately decided to keep Dogecoin originally conceived in 2013 as a joke and mock Bitcoin, but dropped the world’s largest crypto by market capitalization.

Currently, Tesla has removed Bitcoin from its payment page source code, but still retains Dogecoin, Wu said.

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Neither Tesla nor Elon Musk has released an official announcement regarding this decision. Nonetheless, this is no surprise as Musk is a self-proclaimed Dogecoin fan. Besides Tesla, Musk has also previously indicated that his other multibillion-dollar company, Starlink, will also begin allowing DOGE payments for subscriptions.

Tesla still a bitcoin holder

Despite the removal of bitcoin payments, Tesla is not done with cryptocurrency.

Its BTC stash remains intact for the fourth straight quarter, as reported by ZyCrypto. Tesla still holds around $184 million in Bitcoin. The company has not added or sold any BTC since the second quarter of 2022, when it sold over 30,000 bitcoins, which made up 75% of its total holdings, for a whopping $936 million.

BTC is down 1.4% for the week and is currently trading at $29,874, according to CoinGecko. But the first cryptocurrency has exploded by more than 80% since the start of the year, due to several factors. Recent bullish events include the US Federal Reserve hitting the pause button on the last interest rate hike and Blackrock’s landmark application to list a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the US.

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