(Reuters) – Bitcoin surged 9.8% to $39,035.47 on Sunday, adding $3,492.71 to its previous close.
Bitcoin, the world’s biggest and best-known cryptocurrency, is up 40.7% from the year’s low of $27,734 on Jan. 4.
Ether, the coin linked to the ethereum blockchain network, surged 7% to $2,532.77 on Sunday, adding $165.77 to its previous close.
Tesla Inc Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk tweeted on Sunday that the electric carmarker will resume allowing bitcoin transactions when miners who verify transactions use more renewable energy. Musk has been a major promoter of cryptocurrencies but has turned critical of bitcoin since suspending Tesla plans to take it in payment for cars, owing to concerns that the computers used to “mine” it use too much energy.
“When there’s confirmation of reasonable (~50%) clean energy usage by miners with positive future trend, Tesla will resume allowing Bitcoin transactions,” he said in the tweet.
(Reporting by Maria Ponnezhath in Bengaluru; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Lisa Shumaker)
