The price of Bitcoin soared Monday as Elon Musk’s electric car company Tesla announced a $1.5 billion investment in the cryptocurrency. The company also said it would soon begin accepting the cryptocurrency as payment.
The moves were revealed in a regulatory filing by the company.
Bitcoin jumped nearly 14% to nearly $45,000 per coin on the news but fell to $43,658 at the time of writing.
Musk has been a proponent of Bitcoin for some time.
“I do at this point think Bitcoin is a good thing, and I am a supporter of Bitcoin,” Musk said January 31 during an interview on the networking app Clubhouse. “Many friends of mine have tried to convince me to get involved in Bitcoin for a long time.”
“I think Bitcoin is really on the verge of getting broad acceptance by conventional finance people,” he added.
Musk recently was named richest man in the world as shares in Tesla have surged.
Tesla’s stock was up over 1.5% in early trading on Monday.