© Provided by The Independent Tesla CEO Elon Musk has hinted the company may sell - or have already sold - its bitcoin holdings in a Twitter exchange that triggered a sharp fall in the value of the cryptocurrency.
After Twitter user @cryptowhale wrote: "Bitcoiners are going to slap themselves next quarter when they find out Tesla dumped the rest of their #Bitcoin holdings.
"With the amount of hate @elonmusk is getting, I wouldn't blame him."
Mr Musk replied with a single word: "Indeed."
Bitcoin dipped around 8 per cent to $44,000 (£31,210) per coin as a result.
It comes after Tesla last week suspended vehicle purchases using the cryptocurrency over concerns Mr Musk said he had about the "rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for bitcoin mining". Bitcoin's value dropped then too, by 5 per cent in the first five minutes after the announcement.
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Mr Musk, also CEO and founder of SpaceX, has been a big supporter of cryptocurrencies, helping to rally the prices of digital coins such as bitcoin several times in the past year.
Official documents released in February showed that Tesla had bought $1.5bn worth of bitcoin. The company later said it registered a net gain of $101m from sales of bitcoin during the quarter, helping to boost its net profits to a record high in the first quarter.
But critics believe Mr Musk may have moved on to dogecoin in recent weeks, the meme-inspired cryptocurrency, after SpaceX announced recently it would accept it as payment to launch its "DOGE-1 mission to the Moon".
Commenting on Mr Musk's cryptocurrency stance, venture investor Fred Wilson, a founding partner of Union Square Ventures, tweeted on Friday: "He's playing games. It is hard to take anyone who does that seriously. I've lost enormous respect for him over the last year because of it."
He added: "Deep respect for what he does with his talents. Less for what he does with his tweets."
Tesla is yet to comment on the remarks made by its CEO on Twitter this evening.