Elon Musk tweets about Bitcoin again

Elon Musk has just mentioned Bitcoin on Twitter…again. The Tweet itself was very tongue-in-cheek, as Musk joked that Bitcoin is not his safe word. The tweet quickly went viral, with well over 127,000 likes and 9,000 retweets at the time of writing.

Coming out of nowhere, this tweet caused quite a stir in the cryptocurrency community. One Bitcoin-oriented Twitter account replied with a thinking emoji, to which the billionaire entrepreneur responded with a wink emoji. Other prominent cryptocurrency analysts took the opportunity to get some exposure in front of Musk’s 30 million followers, posting their views on what makes Bitcoin valuable.

There has been no discernible reaction to the tweet in the price of Bitcoin. If Musk had said something encouraging people to purchase Bitcoin, perhaps that might have had an impact. But chances are he learned his lesson about influencing markets with his infamous tweet about taking Tesla private at $420.

Musk’s relationship with Bitcoin

The entrepreneur frequently refers to Bitcoin in jest, but he is a genuine admirer of the technology behind it. In a podcast, he openly stated that he believes the structure of Bitcoin is “quite brilliant”. He also noted the merits of Ethereum and “some of the others”. His only criticism of Bitcoin was for its Proof of Work (PoW) mechanism, which he felt was too energy-intensive.

Despite this concern, the co-founder of PayPal heaped praise on the ability of cryptocurrencies to bypass currency controls. He noted that this could be particularly helpful for nations that are in financial and political turmoil, citing Venezuela as an example. He also stated the superiority of cryptocurrencies for transactions in comparison to “pieces of paper”, claiming that is beyond doubt.

The Tesla CEO has also been photographed carrying a Bitcoin-oriented book whilst attending a conference, though there is no confirmation as to whether he was actually reading it.


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