Another day, another instance of Elon Musk completely borking the cryptocurrency market with a single tweet.
This time, it’s Bitcoin that is down around 8 per cent after the Tesla CEO asserted that the company sold, or will sell, the rest of its Bitcoin holdings.
Just three days after Tesla halted purchases using Bitcoin, citing the “rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels” to mine the cryptocurrency, Musk has now asserted the company could distance itself from Bitcoin altogether.
Twitter user CryptoWhale asserted that “Bitcoiners are going to slap themselves next quarter when they find out Tesla dumped the rest of their Bitcoin holdings,” to which Musk replied “indeed.”
Indeed
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 16, 2021
It is unclear if Tesla has already sold its Bitcoin holdings, or if it plans to do this in the near future. However, the company is yet to file anything with the U.S Securities And Exchange Commission, which implies that if Tesla has sold, it has done so very recently.
Interestingly, the potential sale comes just days after Musk – who has long been perhaps the most famous supporter of cryptocurrencies – asserted the company planned to hold its Bitcoin, rather than selling it.
In a SEC filing lodged earlier this year, the electric car manufacturer confirmed that its Bitcoin holdings had seen a whopping $US1 billion increase since it first declared its initial $US1.5 billion investment in early 2021.
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Musk’s move away from Bitcoin coincides with his growing interest in DOGE, which was recently announced as the first cryptocurrency to fund a space mission.
Just a day before hinting that Tesla would sell its Bitcoin holdings, Musk asserted that DOGE “wins hands down.”
Ideally, Doge speeds up block time 10X, increases block size 10X & drops fee 100X. Then it wins hands down.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 16, 2021
Bitcoin dropped by a whopping 5 per cent within minutes of the announcement that Tesla would stop accepting the currency, and has now dropped an additional 8 per cent following Musk’s tweet on Monday morning.
At the time of publishing, one Bitcoin is worth $59,501.38.
DISCLOSURE: The author of this article has a very small (>0.001BTC) investment in Bitcoin.