Back in March of this year, Tesla started accepting cryptocurrency Bitcoin as a form of payment, but the option was short-lived as it was removed in May.
Now, Tesla’s website code has listed Bitcoin as a form of payment, while also mentioning “SHIBA”, referring to the so-called ‘Dogecoin killer’ cryptocurrency known as Shiba Inu.
When you visit Tesla’s website javascript here for its payment forms, you can see “SHIBA” listed alongside “BITCOIN”:
News of the discovery sent the SHIB subreddit speculating on the future of the cryptocurrency, which has seen a major rally last week, now in the top 10 of cryptocurrencies by market cap.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed last week he does not hold any SHIB:
None
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 24, 2021
Musk clarified he only holds Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin:
Out of curiosity, I acquired some ascii hash strings called “Bitcoin, Ethereum & Doge”. That’s it.
As I’ve said before, don’t bet the farm on crypto! True value is building products & providing services to your fellow human beings, not money in any form.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 24, 2021
The Tesla website code does not reference SHIB, but does just mention SHIBA and SBA. These could be placeholders for a Shiba Inu image that may allude to Dogecoin.
It’s unclear if this was just an error on Tesla’s part, or some developer trolling people on the web. But nonetheless, the discovery has sent SHIB spiking tonight to $0.000075 USD ($0.000090 CAD) as of writing, up 12% for the past 24 hours.
UPDATE: We can confirm #SHIB has been REMOVED from #Tesla’s payment processing system code. As we previously mentioned, it could be scrapped at any moment.
Bitcoin however, still remains in the code. pic.twitter.com/dnWECHNzxl
— Watcher.Guru (@WatcherGuru) November 1, 2021
Update Nov. 1: References to SHIBA have been removed from Tesla’s website.
