Elon Musk sent Bitcoin (BTC) reeling on Wednesday, after he announced that Tesla (TSLA) would stop accepting it for car purchases — even though the company continues to hold the digital coin on its books.

In a Twitter post, Musk cited the environmental impact of Bitcoin mining, which has been cited by critics for being energy intensive and a detriment to the climate. 

The development came as a shock to Tesla observers, given that the car company only recently disclosed it had put $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin on its books, and would begin accepting it for payment. That purchase, disclosed in a regulatory filing in February, has already yielded a "positive impact" of at least $100 million for Tesla, the company said last month.

Musk said in his post that Tesla was "concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel."

"Cryptocurrency is a good idea on many levels and we believe it has a promising future, but this cannot come at a great cost to the environment," Musk wrote.

The move took cryptocurrency enthusiasts by surprise, driving down the price of Bitcoin after hours. In post-market action, the currency dropped by over 6%.

The move also sparked an immediate furor among Bitcoin investors — many of whom have applauded Musk's embrace of Dogecoin.

 In recent weeks, the meme currency has skyrocketed as the billionaire publicly championed its rise — which came back to earth over the weekend after Musk's controversial appearance on "Saturday Night Live," when he referred to the unit as a "hustle."

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