Shafaq News / Bitcoin popped back above $50,000 in Asian trade on Thursday, clawing back some of the 17% plunge that followed Elon Musk’s tweet that Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) would stop accepting the digital tokens as payment for its cars, Reuters reported.

The price of the world's largest cryptocurrency dropped from around $54,819 to $45,700, its lowest since March 1, in just under two hours following the tweet shortly after 2200 GMT. It recovered about half of that drop early in the Asian session, and last traded about $51,099.

Ether , the world's second-largest cryptocurrency, followed a similar pattern, dropping 14% to touch a low of $3,550, before bouncing back above $4,000.

“We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel,” Musk wrote.

Tesla’s announcement on Feb. 8 that it had bought $1.5 billion of bitcoin and that it would accept it as payment for cars has been one factor behind the digital token’s surging price this year.

As a result, Musk's comments roiled markets even though he said Tesla would not sell any bitcoin and would resume accepting the cryptocurrency as soon as mining transitioned to more sustainable energy.