Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy lashed out at Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk in a tweet on Thursday evening and accused him of being a market manipulator for pumping Dogecoin (DOGE).
What Happened: “Say whatever you want about him but @elonmusk is the best market manipulator in the history of earth. [Dogecoin] up 20% since his tweet an hour ago. Amazing,” the celebrity blogger said on Twitter.
On the same day, Musk had tweeted that he was working with Dogecoin developers “to improve system transaction efficiency. Potentially promising.”
Tesla is concerned about the “rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels” in both Bitcoin (BTC) mining and transactions and has stopped accepting the apex cryptocurrency for payments.
“To be clear, I strongly believe in crypto, but it can’t drive a massive increase in fossil fuel use, especially coal,” Musk said in a separate tweet.
On Thursday in a 24-hour trailing period leading up to press time, DOGE traded 14.49% higher at $0.49. The coin touched an intra-day high of $0.52.
See also: How to Buy Dogecoin (DOGE)
BTC traded below the psychologically important $50,000. The cryptocurrency was down 0.56% at $49,376.28.
Why It Matters: On Wednesday, Portnoy had accused Musk of sending Dogecoin up and Bitcoin down in a video message he tweeted after Tesla said it would stop taking Bitcoin for payments.
Portnoy said that Musk has been “pulling the levers like he’s the Wizard of Oz on crypto and everyone following his every move — he’s sending Dogecoin up, he’s sending Bitcoin down. This is bullsh*t.”
Prior to that, when Tesla sold $272 million worth of BTC, Portnoy and Musk had exchanged tweets. Portnoy had at the time accused Musk of pumping BTC and then later dumping it to make a fortune.
Cathie Wood-headed Ark Invest’s Director of Research Brett Winton also came out in support of Bitcoin and called it a “novel economic institution” on Thursday. As per Winton, its potential outweighs its energy requirements.
Price Action: On Thursday, Tesla shares closed nearly 3.1% lower at $571.69 in the regular session and rose 0.32% in after-hours trading.
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