Tesla CEO Elon Musk continues to cause bitcoin price shocks, and after he responded with a tweet on the 16th suggesting that Tesla might sell, or that he was already selling, his holdings, bitcoin prices fell below $45,000 at one point, a February low.
According to CoinMarketCap, bitcoin fell to $4,4050 during the day, the first time in nearly three months that it had fallen below $45,000, but later pared its losses to 5.3% at $45,978.71. In a Twitter post, Musk said Tesla should shed once as much as $1.5 billion in cryptocurrency parts at some point in time.
Musk’s latest statement came in response to a tweet from a user with the pseudonym @CryptoWhale, who said, “Bitcoin holders will slap themselves in the face next quarter when they find out Tesla has sold off the rest of its bitcoin position. While more and more people hate @elonmusk (Musk), I don’t blame him…”
Musk responded, “Indeed.”
Friend @CryptoWhale, who describes himself as a “crypto analyst,” also posted about the market and cryptocurrency trends.
Musk’s latest comments on bitcoin are his latest public statements on the digital currency in a week that has led to significant volatility in the currency’s price. His tweet on the 12th announcing that Tesla would not accept bitcoin for car payments caused bitcoin to crash by nearly $10,000 in a matter of hours, and days before that, he hosted “Saturday Night Live” and joked about his previously touted dogcoin, saying it was a “hustle A few days before that, he hosted the “Saturday Night Live” show and joked about the dogcoin he had previously touted, saying the coin was a “hustle,” causing the price to fall hard. A few days later he tweeted that he was working with dogcoin developers to improve its trading efficiency.
Musk revealed in early February that Tesla had used $1.5 billion of the company’s $20 billion in cash to buy bitcoin, which had driven its price to record highs and made the digital currency more popular for mainstream adoption.
Musk spent hours on Sunday battling a number of Twitter users who criticized him for his abrupt change in stance on bitcoin last week, including once saying Tesla would not sell any bitcoin parts, but later selling them, and Musk later mentioning concerns about the energy consumption of bitcoin to process transactions.
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