Cathy Wood, founder of Ark Investment Management, believes that Tesla CEO Musk and the ESG (Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance) movement should be responsible for the recent plunge in cryptocurrencies.

Wood said at the Consensus 2021 conference hosted by Coindesk on Thursday: “Many institutional purchases have been suspended. This is due to the ESG movement and the intensified concept of Elon Musk, which believes that there is some real existence in Bitcoin mining. Environmental issues.”

Recent studies have found that the energy consumption behind cryptocurrency mining is comparable to that of some medium-sized countries, most of which are coal-driven, although cryptocurrency bulls have questioned these findings.

Musk said on Twitter on May 12 that Tesla will stop accepting Bitcoin as a payment method for buying cars, citing the excessive use of fossil fuels in cryptocurrency mining. Since then, the value of some cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin has fallen by more than 50% from its recent peak. Musk said this week that he is working with developers and miners to develop a more environmentally friendly encryption mining process.

In an interview with CoinDesk, Wood said: “Elon may have received calls from some institutions,” pointing out that BlackRock, the world’s largest asset management company, is Tesla’s third-largest shareholder.

Wood said that BlackRock CEO Larry Fink “is concerned about ESG, especially climate change,” she said. “I’m sure BlackRock has some complaints, and maybe some very large shareholders in Europe are very sensitive to this.”

Despite the recent volatility, Wood expects that Musk will continue to be a positive force for Bitcoin in the long term, and may even help reduce its environmental impact. “He encouraged more dialogue and more analytical thinking. I believe he will be part of this process,” she said.