There’s no doubt: When the Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweets about Bitcoin, he is moving the largest cryptocurrency in the world. In fact, in May 2021, Bitcoin’s market cap exceeded 1 Trillion Dollars!
Source: https://coinmarketcap.com/largest-companies/
Even at the current valuation, it’s worth more than the electric car maker Tesla.
What does Elon Musk say about Bitcoin?
Back in March, when Elon Musk announced that Tesla (TSLA) was getting into the cryptocurrency market, it seemed like a match made in heaven:
The world’s most popular company with the crypto’s most popular token. What could go wrong?
Tesla initially bought $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin to keep on its balance sheet. Musk even revealed that the company would begin accepting Bitcoin as payment for its vehicles.
The future was truly here! Paying with a decentralized digital currency for an electric vehicle?
Sounds like something out of a science fiction movie!
But just several weeks later, Tesla’s relationship with Bitcoin came crashing down.
Bitcoin Tumbles After Elon Musk Tweets Broken Heart Emoji
On June 3rd, Musk ended weeks of speculation by tweeting a broken heart emoji alongside the Bitcoin hashtag.
While Musk did not explicitly say that Tesla had sold all of its Bitcoin, most people on Twitter took that as the official breakup.
Bitcoin’s price tumbled by over 5% in the hours following the tweet, sending the crypto community into chaos once again.
But this is not the first time that the Tesla CEO is moving the market.
Let’s take a look at his social media activity:
What Did Elon Musk Tweet?
Here is a brief timeline of how Musk has tweeted about Tesla’s relationship with Bitcoin:
January 29th: Elon Musk changes his Twitter bio to read #Bitcoin, sending the price up by 20% in the hours following.
February 8th: Tesla buys 1.5 Billion in Bitcoin.
Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/08/tesla-buys-1point5-billion-in-bitcoin.html
February 19th: In a conversation on Twitter with noted Bitcoin bear Peter Schiff, Musk says he believes the market caps of Bitcoin and Ethereum are high. Bitcoin proceeded to drop by 10% in the days following.
March 24th:
Musk officially tweets that you can buy Tesla vehicles with Bitcoin. Sending the price of the crypto surging by 20% to over $46,000.
Mid April, Musk seems to have fun manipulating cryptocurrencies:
April 28th: Musk causes the price of DogeCoin to surge by 20% after he and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban tweeted support for the meme crypto.
Musk also takes the opportunity to advertise that he is hosting Saturday Night Live, which would coincide with DogeCoin’s all-time high price.
Back to Bitcoin: He now has a change of heart:
Citing excessive energy usage for mining Bitcoin, Musk tweets that Tesla will no longer be accepting Bitcoin as payment, sending the price of Bitcoin into freefall.
The price of Bitcoin tumbled 15% with $365 billion exiting the crypto markets.
In a reply to a well-known Bitcoin Twitter account, Musk reiterates that Tesla has not sold any of its Bitcoin. The price of Bitcoin rallied slightly.
May 19th: Three days later, Musk tweets that Tesla has diamond hands and is holding on to its Bitcoin. This tweet came amidst a plunge in the price of Bitcoin dropping to levels slightly above $30,000.
The tweet did little to rally the price of Bitcoin.
Musk reveals he has spoken with North American Bitcoin miners about a solution that would use renewable energies.
Musk states that the developments are potentially promising, and the Bitcoin community agreed to send the price of the coin back up 5% on the news.
June 3: The price of Bitcoin falls a further 4% after Musk tweets what appears to be a breakup meme with the hashtag #Bitcoin and the broken heart emoji.
On June 8th, the price of Bitcoin was still down nearly 10% since Musk tweeted the breakup meme on June 3rd.
Bitcoin is a global currency that has a market cap of nearly $700 billion.
How stable is it, if Musk can cause such violent swings within hours of tweeting a meme?
It’s crazy!
Why Did Elon Musk Tweet About Dogecoin?
Running parallel to Musk’s apparent bearish turn on Bitcoin is his fascination with the meme crypto known as DogeCoin.
Doge was created years ago as a joke but has quickly been embraced by the mainstream as a crypto for the people.
Doge peaked at $0.71 per coin the night Musk hosted Saturday Night Live, and as of this week is officially trading on the largest U.S. crypto exchange, Coinbase (COIN).
Musk single-handedly caused the price of DogeCoin to rebound by 30% in May when he revealed he was working alongside DogeCoin developers to improve the efficiency of it as a payment platform.
He also tweeted, whether it was a joke or not, that SpaceX would accept DogeCoin as payment for flights to the moon.
Does Elon Musk Own Bitcoin?
As of May 19th, Musk tweeted that Tesla has diamond hands, which is a new way of saying that they are holding on and not selling.
Musk has not revealed if Tesla continues to hold its Bitcoin, but many are taking the recent breakup tweet as a sign that Tesla has officially parted ways with the benchmark crypto.
What’s Next For Bitcoin?
It really depends on who you ask!
Bitcoin bulls will tell you that volatility is to be expected with any cryptocurrency, while Bitcoin bears the question of how it can be considered a store of value with such wild price fluctuations.
It’s really crazy that ONE man and his social media account can affect the prices with a simple tweet – and sometimes it’s a joke!
Last weekend there was the 2021 Bitcoin conference in Miami with at least 12,000 people in attendance. But this event did NOTHING to the price of Bitcoin – compared to Elon Musks Bitcoin Tweets.
Read Next: Bitcoin Crash 2021: Is Bitcoin Still Worth Buying or Investing in?
No he does not move the market, maybe a little bit, but he is smart, he times his tweets perfectly. He does his TA…
Thanks for sharing your thoughts here. 😉