[Bitcoin Now] Musk Criticizes Environmental Issues Again... Stays Around 63 Million Won

CEO Musk: "Recent Bitcoin-related electricity usage trends are insane"
US DOJ & IRS investigate Binance for money laundering and tax evasion

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Gong Byung-sun] The leading cryptocurrency Bitcoin remains around 63 million KRW. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, pointed out environmental issues related to Bitcoin for two consecutive days.

According to the domestic cryptocurrency exchange Upbit, as of 10:44 AM on the 14th, Bitcoin recorded 63.09 million KRW, up 0.03% from the previous day. It rebounded from 60.2 million KRW the day before to the 63 million KRW range.

CEO Musk reiterated concerns about Bitcoin's environmental impact. On the 12th (local time), Musk announced that Tesla would stop accepting Bitcoin payments because the electricity used in Bitcoin mining and transactions harms the environment. On the 13th, he tweeted, “The trend of electricity consumption used for Bitcoin in recent months has risen steeply to an insane degree,” citing a graph estimating the annual electricity consumption of the Bitcoin network from the University of Cambridge. Cambridge estimated the annual electricity consumption related to Bitcoin at 149.63 TWh (terawatt-hours) on the 12th. This is about a 44.79% increase compared to the 82.61 TWh estimated on May 12 last year.

Criticism is emerging over Musk's inconsistent stance, oscillating between praising and criticizing Bitcoin. It is said that he is disrupting the market by leveraging his personal influence. The New York Times stated, “In the past, Musk said he would not sell Bitcoin, but he might have sold before announcing the suspension of payments,” adding, “We will look into whether Bitcoin transactions occurred during Tesla’s Q2 earnings announcement.”

Meanwhile, issues of money laundering and tax evasion in cryptocurrency exchanges have resurfaced. According to the US economic media Bloomberg on the 13th, the US Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service are investigating whether the overseas cryptocurrency exchange Binance is involved in money laundering and tax evasion. Binance stated, “We comply with legal obligations and cooperate with regulatory authorities,” and explained, “We have been making efforts ourselves to prevent money laundering issues.” Earlier in March, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission investigated Binance for providing margin trading services to US residents without authorization.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.