Just a day after hinting that Tesla could sell – or might’ve already sold – its mammoth Bitcoin holdings, CEO Elon Musk has confirmed that the company hasn’t sold anything yet.
The announcement is particularly noteworthy considering Musk’s dealings with Bitcoin in recent months. After investing $US1.5 billion in Bitcoin earlier this year, Tesla announced it would begin taking the crypto as a payment method, only to quickly retract this shortly after payments began. Since then, Elon has hinted at selling the company’s Bitcoin holdings, citing environmental impact.
To put it simply, it’s been a crazy couple of months.
At this point, so much as a sneeze from Elon Musk could wreak havoc on the crypto market and his most recent comment is no exception. Since confirming that Tesla is still neck deep in a pool of Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency has already started to bounce back from what was a three-month low.
In response to a Bitcoin analysis account, Musk confirmed “to clarify speculation, Tesla has not sold any Bitcoin.”
To clarify speculation, Tesla has not sold any Bitcoin
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 17, 2021
However, this doesn’t quash the fear that Tesla – which owns approximately $US2.48 billion worth of Bitcoin – could sell off its chunk of the market. Sure, Tesla would likely escape with a literal fortune, but selling off such a huge chunk of the circulating supply could be detrimental to the price of the coin moving forward.
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But thankfully, Musk’s tweet seems to have somewhat stabilised the coin, which surged in value by approximately 7 per cent in the 20 minutes following his tweet to approximately $56,214.
This is significant considering the price dropped to approximately $54,000 after he hinted at selling the currency.
Yes. A single word tweet: “indeed”, saw the currency drop in value by as much as $2,000. The tweet was in response to a post by Twitter user CryptoWhale.
“Bitcoiners are going to slap themselves next quarter when they find out Tesla dumped the rest of their #Bitcoin holdings,” he tweeted.
“With the amount of hate @elonmusk is getting, I wouldn’t blame him…”
Bitcoiners are going to slap themselves next quarter when they find out Tesla dumped the rest of their #Bitcoin holdings.
With the amount of hate @elonmusk is getting, I wouldn’t blame him…
— Mr. Whale (@CryptoWhale) May 16, 2021
It truly is Elon Musk’s world and we’re just living in it.
However, the market as a whole is still down overall as it attempt to recover from a $385 billion crash when Musk announced that Tesla would no longer accept Bitcoin as payment.
Ultimately, this all goes to show exactly why the value of a currency shouldn’t be dependent on what the heck Elon Musk shit-posts on Twitter.