How To Buy A Tesla In Bitcoin: A Step By Step Guide

Tesla (TSLA) is now ready to begin accepting Bitcoin for payment of its electric vehicles after announcing that it would do so back in February.

CEO Elon Musk said that the cryptocurrency for EV purchases was now accessible at Tesla on Twitter on Wednesday, marking a departure from his significant support of Dogecoin in recent months. Musk also said that Bitcoin purchases outside the U.S. would come later this year.

Along with the news of the Bitcoin news, Musk gave some insight into how the cryptocurrency would be managed by Tesla. He said the automaker would be using internal and open-source software to manage payments and operating Bitcoin nodes directly.

Tesla would also be retaining all payments paid to it as Bitcoin and not converting it to “fiat currency.”

As of mid-morning Wednesday, Bitcoin was priced at $57,224.36, up 3.64%, according to CoinMarketCap.

While more questions certainly exist about how to purchase a vehicle from the company with Bitcoin, here are some tips to keep in mind, according to Tesla.

Payments

For car buyers that are looking to pay with Bitcoin, payments can be initiated directly from a Bitcoin wallet. This can be done by scanning the QR code or copy and pasting the Bitcoin address and inputting the exact currency amount into the wallet.

Now, if a Bitcoin holder has multiple wallets, it is not a good idea to send payments from multiple wallets. Tesla said on its website, “to ensure timely processing of your order, send the exact amount in a single Bitcoin payment.”

Payment Processing Times

Following the payment from a Bitcoin wallet, consumers will see the page refresh within one minute, and email confirmation of the payment received will be sent.

If the page does not refresh immediately, do not send a new payment as it could take up to six hours for email confirmation to be sent to an inbox, according to the automaker.

When making a payment, car buyers have a limited amount of time to process their payment. A timer counts down and once it runs out, the QR code, Bitcoin address, and Bitcoin price will expire.

At this time, a new order will need to be created through the Tesla account, and final payment will need to be initiated again.

Processing Errors

Say an error occurs with a payment and the amount differs from the order deposit. In this case, Tesla said, the order may be canceled.

But if the payment amount differs from the final amount of the cost of the vehicle, then there could be a delay in the delivery of the car, Tesla said.

Currently, Tesla only accepts Bitcoin in the U.S. If another cryptocurrency is sent to the EV maker, it will not be received and could result in loss of funds for the consumer, the company said.

The Fine Print

In the Tesla terms and conditions, the company warns that “bitcoin transactions cannot be reversed” and wrong addresses could result in lost or destroyed currency. It also states that transaction fees are the responsibility of the customer.

Tesla also cautions that the value of any Bitcoin refund could be “significantly less” than its U.S. dollar equivalent at the time of purchase due to the volatility of the currency.

Shares of Tesla were trading at $660.27 as of 10:03 a.m. EDT, down $1.89 or 0.29%.