A full-scale war of words played out on Sunday on Twitter Inc’s TWTR social media platform between Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk and supporters of Bitcoin (BTC).
What Happened: On Sunday, in a reply to a tweet, Musk seemed to signal that Tesla might dump the remainder of BTC it holds. The billionaire entrepreneur followed up with another tweet, early morning Monday, clarifying that Tesla has not sold any Bitcoin.
However, the back and forth between Bitcoin supporters and Musk was less than friendly at times.
Pixelmatic CEO Samson Mow pointed to an old adage while tweeting at Musk. In the same string, he advised the Tesla CEO to talk to others such as internet entrepreneur Reid Hoffman, who worked with Musk at PayPal Holdings Inc PYPL. Mow claimed Hoffman had a “deep understanding” of Bitcoin.
Seriously though Elon, you should talk to @reidhoffman. You both worked together at PayPay so you probably value his opinion more than ours. Reid invested in Blockstream back in 2014 and has a deep understanding of #Bitcoin.
— Samson Mow (@Excellion) May 16, 2021
Mow seemed to have said this in response to Musk’s tweets, where he had pointed to his association with Paypal and to the centralized nature of Bitcoin.
Hey cryptocurrency “experts”, ever heard of PayPal? It’s possible … maybe … that I know than you realize about how money works.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 16, 2021
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao also chimed in amid the BTC meltdown, responding to a post aimed at Michael Saylor of MicroStrategy Incorporated MSTR.
Just FYI, traditionally, many institutional investors are known to push price down to buy themselves.@michael_saylor is not one of them, of course.
— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) May 17, 2021
Zhao also shared his views on the upheaval but with a caveat that he was not giving financial advice.
#Bitcoin/#crypto have not changed. They don't care.
— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) May 17, 2021
There are always fluctuations in the market, for all kind of reasons. You can blame others for what they tweet (their freedom). Or you can take advantage of the opportunities.
Not financial advice.
Myspace co-founder Tom Anderson also weighed in.
Buying The Dip pic.twitter.com/dnJL3l087T
— Tom Anderson (@myspacetom) May 17, 2021
Why It Matters: The Twitter conversation between ‘What Bitcoin Did’ podcast host Peter McCormack and Musk led the latter to post that he wanted to go “all in on” Dogecoin (DOGE).
See Also: How to Buy Dogecoin (DOGE)
Obnoxious threads like this make me want to go all in on Doge
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 16, 2021
Some voiced opinions in favor of the Shiba Inu-themed cryptocurrency as well, even if just in jest.
.@elonmusk you should troll the shit out of these bitcoin clowns by swapping the tesla treasury btc for doge
— Neeraj K. Agrawal (@NeerajKA) May 16, 2021
Others were of the opinion that Musk would change his mind on Bitcoin.
I still like Elon tbh, he’ll come around
— Arjun Balaji (@arjunblj) May 16, 2021
Meanwhile, BTC has declined 24.75% in the span of seven days. The apex cryptocurrency traded 9.74% lower at $44,275.77 at press time on a 24-hour basis. From the all-time-high of $64,863.10, the cryptocurrency has fallen 31.80%.
See Also: Portnoy On Dogecoin Surge Says Elon Musk Is The 'Best Market Manipulator In History Of Earth'
DOGE too has fallen but to a lesser degree. The meme coin is down 10.61% on a seven-day basis and traded 9.27% lower at $0.49 at press time on a 24-hour basis.
It is noteworthy that Tesla has already sold $272 million of BTC in April as per its first-quarter earnings when it revealed it had purchased $1.5 billion worth of the cryptocurrency in the same period.
Last week, the automaker stopped taking Bitcoin payments citing environmental concerns. At the time Musk had announced that Tesla will retain Bitcoin paid to it, which will not be converted to fiat currency.
© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
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