Elon Musk Tweets That Tanked Bitcoin Likely Came Due To Pressure From Institutional Investors, Says Tesla Bull Cathie Wood

Cathie Wood, the founder of Ark Investment Management, believes that Tesla Inc. TSLA CEO Elon Musk’s recent tweets that led to a fall in the price of Bitcoin (BTC) probably came due to pressure from institutional investors.

What Happened: Wood said at the CoinDesk’s Consensus 2021 conference on Thursday that Musk likely got a few calls from institutional investors, who were concerned about Bitcoin’s environmental profile. She noted that BlackRock Inc. BLK is Tesla’s third-largest shareholder and Larry Fink is its CEO.

“He (Fink) is focused on ESG and especially on climate change. I’m sure BlackRock registered some complaints and perhaps there are some very large holders in Europe who are extremely sensitive to this,” Wood said.

See also: How to Buy Bitcoin (BTC)

Musk and the ESG (environmental, social and governance) movement are responsible for the recent drop in cryptocurrency prices, according to Wood, whose Ark Investment is a major Tesla backer.

However, Wood remains confident in the future of Bitcoin and predicted that Musk will prove positive for the apex cryptocurrency in the long term, as he has encouraged a lot more conversation and analytical thinking.

See Also: Cathie Wood Expects Bitcoin To Reach $500,000

Why It Matters: The potential environmental damage of cryptocurrency mining has been a subject of debate and controversy. 

However, Ark Invest said earlier this month it believes concerns such as those expressed by Musk over Bitcoin’s energy consumption are “misguided” and the impact of Bitcoin mining could become a “net positive” to the environment.

Musk said earlier this month that Tesla would no longer accept Bitcoin for vehicle purchases due to concerns over the cryptocurrency’s environmental impact. On Monday, Musk said he held “potentially promising” talks with Bitcoin miners in North America, indicating he may be rethinking his stance on the cryptocurrency.

Price Action: Bitcoin is down 42.4% from its all-time high of $64,863.10 reached on April 14 this year. The apex cryptocurrency is down 0.5% during the last 24 hours and is trading at $37,538.13 at press time.

Read Next: Elon Musk The Next 'Bad Boy' Of Crypto? At Least 'Incumbent' Justin Sun Thinks So

Photo by Daniel Oberhaus on Flickr