Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and CEO of Tesla Inc., arrives at the Axel Springer Awards in Berlin, Germany, on Tuesday, December 1, 2020.
Liesa Johannssen-Koppitz | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Elon Musk came out on Friday as a believer in bitcoin – and now he’s doubling down.
Billionaire Tesla boss added the hashtag #bitcoin to his Twitter bio last week, in a move that helped push the price of the cryptocurrency up as much as 20%.
Musk confirmed in a discussion on the popular Clubhouse audio app late Sunday that he is a proponent of bitcoin.
“I have to look at what I’m saying here, because some of these things can really move the market,” Musk said. “A lot of friends of mine have been trying to convince me for a long time to get involved with bitcoin.”
Musk said he once ate a slice of ‘bitcoin cake’ given to him by a friend in 2013, and that he ‘clearly … should have bought bitcoin at least eight years ago.
“I think at this point bitcoin is a good thing, and I’m a proponent of bitcoin,” Musk said.
“I think bitcoin is really on the verge of gaining broad acceptance through conventional finance.”
Musk added that he does not have a “strong opinion” about other virtual currencies. He tweeted about the meme-based cryptocurrency dogecoin in the past and indicated in 2019 that it was his ‘fav cryptocurrency’.
Last week, dogecoin soared to 800% in 24 hours after a tweet from Musk was taken by Reddit users to mean he was throwing his support behind the sign.
“Sometimes I make jokes about dogecoin, but these are really just jokes,” Musk said Sunday. “Dogecoin was made as a joke to mock the cryptocurrencies.”
“But fate likes irony,” he adds jokingly. “The most entertaining outcome and the most ironic outcome would be that dogecoin becomes the Earth’s currency in the future.”
Musk’s comments mostly did not affect the exchange rate markets, but bitcoin and dogecoin actually fell slightly after he spoke. Dogecoin has risen 40% over the past 24 hours, following a major slump over the weekend.
Bitcoin has more than doubled over the course of last year. At the beginning of 2021, it will reach a new record of almost $ 42,000 all time. Bullish investors believe that the digital currency has received a boost due to increased institutional interest and the perception that it is a safe haven like gold.