Bitcoin hits peak after Tesla invests $1.5bn
AFP NEW YORK: Tesla helped push bitcoin to an all-time high on Monday after the carmaker announced a $1.5 billion investment in the digital money and plans to accept the cryptocurrency from customers buying its electric vehicles. The announcement comes on the heels of a cheeky social media embrace of bitcoin by iconoclastic Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and marks the latest step in the mainstreaming of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin’s value has risen by about 50 per cent this year, but sceptics say it is still highly volatile and regulators warn it is vulnerable to illicit use. Musk, an expert at disrupting corporate norms as well as economic structures, last week briefly changed his Twitter bio to simply read “#bitcoin. He also has taken to social media in recent days to promote dogecoin, another digital money that was originally launched as a joke but has suddenly become more valuable. In a securities filing, Tesla described the bitcoin purchase as an effort to boost company liquidity. “In Jan