On Wednesday, Elon Musk returned to his market destabilizing best as hundreds of millions were erased from the value of various cryptocurrencies. The plunge came after Tesla announced that it would stop accepting bitcoin as payment for cars, given the astronomical power consumption used to mine bitcoin.

Musk's tweet was sent at 6:06 p.m. ET on Wednesday, and the bitcoin tracking graph saw a sharp drop shortly thereafter; according to CNBC, the cryptocurrency market lost $365 billion after the tweet.

The damage was not limited to Bitcoin. Ethereum and Ripple lost value, with Ethereum falling $318, or 7.88%, and Ripple likewise falling 7.13%, its value dropping $0.10 to $1.29. Perhaps unrelated to Musk's tweets, even ShibainuCoin took a hit, falling 36%.

As of today (May 14), the situation has improved slightly. After Tesla's announcement, bitcoin's lowest price was roughly $49,000. Last month it peaked at about $63,000, and as of this writing it is back up to $51,230.

Dogecoin also dropped in value, a trend that began when Mr. Musk called Dogecoin a "hustle" on Saturday Night Live. However, with the news that Dogecoin will soon be listed on the crypto exchange Coinbase, Dogecoin's value quickly rose. It is currently at $0.55, up from $0.45 after SNL and a low of $0.38 on Thursday.

A statement released on Elon Musk's Twitter, in stunningly inaccessible image format, read:

"Tesla has stopped using bitcoin to purchase vehicles. We are concerned about the rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels, especially coal, which is the least emissions intensive of the fuels, for mining and trading bitcoin.

While we believe cryptocurrencies are a good idea in many ways and have a promising future, they cannot come at a great cost to the environment.

Tesla has no plans to sell bitcoins and intends to use them for trading as soon as mining moves to more sustainable energy. We also look to other cryptocurrencies that use<1% of Bitcoin's energy/transaction".

Bitcoin. Musk then presented a graph showing Bitcoin's energy usage, describing it as "insane."

According to researchers at the University of Cambridge, bitcoin uses more electricity than Argentina. Mining bitcoin is computationally very difficult and mining requires a lot of intense processing, which results in the use of a lot of power. According to researchers, bitcoin uses 121.36 terawatt hours per year. In contrast, according to TRG Datacentres, Dogecoin currently uses 0.12 KWh per transaction, compared to 707 KWh for Bitcoin.

The replies to Musk's May 12 tweet were numerous, with many blaming him for ruining their investments. Some people who have invested in bitcoin have seen the value of bitcoin drop enormously. Many casual investors will not have the ability or patience to wait for their investments to recover.

This is a chilling and stark reminder that cryptocurrencies are a serious investment, and while there is much to look forward to while prices are rising, losses can be significant (at least in the short term) and potentially devastating for smaller investors. As always, unless you are a professional investor, treat your crypto purchases seriously and do not risk more than you can afford to lose.