Somewhere between provocative and potentially illegal is a fine line that some experts believe Elon Musk is dancing on with his bevy of Bitcoin tweets he sends out weekly.
There’s no question his support and endorsement of Bitcoin has helped the cryptocurrency’s value soar. There’s no denying the power he has to manipulate multiple markets, and a very strong argument could be made to say he’s the most powerful person in the world when it comes to possessing that much sway.
It would actually be hard to make a strong case for anyone but Elon having that type of influence.
Keep in mind, at one point Musk actually changed his bio on Twitter to “Bitcoin.”
City A.M. reported on Bloomberg’s Twitter posting a clip of an interview with Binance CEO Changpeg Zhao, and in the interview Zhao appeared to be very surprised by something else that Musk has been doing lately on Twitter; showing support for Doge.
“I’m surprised Elon’s so gung-ho on Dogecoin – but this is the free decentralized world, anybody can like anything, he can like Dogecoin, and I strongly believe he isn’t associated with Dogecoin in any way,” the South African entrepreneur said.
What Zhao said next, caught Musk’s attention and a response for the Tesla/SpaceX/Boring Company CEO that showed it clearly got underneath Musk’s skin.
“It’s one of those coins that started as a joke and is gaining popularity over time for various reasons that nobody expected.”
Zhao continued, “but the fact is that Tesla bought Bitcoin, not Dogecoin, so I think Elon likes it a lot personally.”
Those are not what you could inflammatory comments, but they certainly riled Musk.
It’s what he said next that some reports say will once again put Musk on the radar of the SEC.
From Musk: “Tesla’s action is not directly reflective of my opinion.”
“Having some Bitcoin, which is simply a less dumb form of liquidity than cash, is adventurous enough for an S&P500 company.”
He continued, “to be clear, I am *not* an investor, I am an engineer. I don’t even own any publicly traded stock besides Tesla.”
“However, when fiat currency has negative real interest, only a fool wouldn’t look elsewhere. Bitcoin is almost as bs as fiat money. The key word is “almost”.”
The next stage for market watchers is to see what the fallout from those comments is.
City AM quoted an unnamed market insider saying “One week, Elon Musk is changing his social media bio to “Bitcoin” and sending the markets into total overdrive, the next he’s essentially labeling it as ‘BS.’”
The source continued, saying “No one will be doubting that he has the right to an opinion, and he also has the right to change that opinion, but if your opinion has so much influence on other people, well, it’s not something that should be taken lightly.
“I’m telling you now, this contrast, this apparent one-eighty, this shift of sentiment – call it what you will – is going to raise eyebrows with the authorities.”
Let the fallout begin! With former President Donald Trump out of the news media ecosystem, stories on Musk have stepped in to fill the void, and it will be interesting to see what, if anything happens next.
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