Business this week

Business this week

Bitcoin surged to a record high, after Tesla revealed that it had bought $1.5bn-worth of the cryptocurrency and would accept it as payment for its cars. Elon Musk's recent musings on digital money have bolstered the claims of bitcoin backers that it will one day be mainstream legal tender. Tesla's investment in such a volatile market is a risky bet, however, and blemishes its green credentials. The amount of computer energy needed to mine bitcoin accounts for 0.56% of the world's total electricity consumption, according to the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance.Oil prices were at their highest level in over a year. Brent crude rose above $60 a barrel; in April last year, the early days of the coronavirus crisis, it had dropped below $20. Prices have been on a steady ascent since October, fuelled in part by more curtailments to Saudi Arabia's output and a pick-up in demand from China; oil imports there are thought to have jumped by a third in January, from December. See article. Kuaishou's share price continued climbing, days after its IPO in Hong Kong raised $5.4bn, the biggest stockmarket flotation in the tech industry since Uber. A rival to TikTok (known as Douyin in