Elon Musk affects the cryptocurrency market once more, implying Tesla might accept bitcoin payments again in the future.
In response to a Cointelegraph article, Tesla’s CEO stated it is not true he manipulated the price of bitcoin. The article published an interview with Magda Wierzycka, who stated that Musk might have been investigated for price manipulation if the asset he speculated on wasn’t a digital currency.
“The [Bitcoin] volatility we have seen is an unexpected function of what I would call market manipulation by Elon Musk. If that happens to a listed company, he would be investigated and severely sanctioned by [the] SEC.” She also added: “What we have seen with Bitcoin is price manipulation by one very powerful and influential individual.”
Magda Wierzycka
In his tweet, Elon Musk explained Tesla had sold only 10% of its bitcoin holdings supposedly to confirm the digital asset’s liquidity. He also wrote about the environmental concerns that come from bitcoin mining. Musk said the company might reaccept BTC payments if miners use clean energy in the future.
“This is inaccurate. Tesla only sold ~10% of holdings to confirm BTC could be liquidated easily without moving market. When there’s confirmation of reasonable (~50%) clean energy usage by miners with positive future trend, Tesla will resume allowing Bitcoin transactions.”
Elon Musk on Twitter
About an hour after Elon Musk’s tweet was sent, the cryptocurrency chart went green. Bitcoin’s price increased by 11% in less than a day. Currently, 1 BTC is traded at $39,151.91 and seems to continue its way to $40k. Several analysts are associating the price growth to Musk’s words.
“Musk’s latest tweet is net positive for bitcoin because it not only gives a benchmark for Tesla to deem the cryptocurrency carbon neutral, but it will force mining groups to publicize information, therefore making the entire mining operations more transparent and environmental, social, and governance-friendly.”
Nick Mancini, a research analyst at Trade the Chain
With Elon Musk announcing that Tesla would no longer accept bitcoin as payment for its vehicles, and China putting a ban on Bitcoin mining throughout the entire country, the cryptocurrency has been struggling the past few weeks, with its price going lower than $30k.
