MicroStrategy / YouTube / Mario Tama / Getty Images
- Tesla’s bitcoin bet may have been influenced by Elon Musk and Michael Saylor’s Twitter exchange.
- The CEO of MicroStrategy told Time magazine that Tesla’s decision is a turning point for bitcoin.
- Saylor said it was not “appropriate business adornment” to discuss talks with another CEO in public.
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Elon Musk’s Twitter dialogue with MicroStrategy’s CEO influenced Tesla’s decision to invest $ 1.5 billion in bitcoin, Michael Saylor said in a recent interview with Time magazine.
Late last year Musk tweeted a disgusting meme painting of a monk praying with his eyes closed, while a woman in the background acts as a metaphor for bitcoin in an attempt to tempt him.
Saylor answer to Musk’s post, saying he should do Tesla’s shareholders a “$ 100 billion favor” by converting the company’s balance sheet from dollars to bitcoin. “Other businesses on the S&P 500 will lead you, and in time it will become a $ 1 trillion favor,” he wrote.
Musk responded with a question about whether such big deals were possible, to which Saylor said ‘yes’ and that he was willing to share his playbook with the Tesla boss.
@ elonmusk / Twitter
A little over a month after their informal conversation, Tesla unveiled its biggest bitcoin approval to date, announcing that it would not only invest $ 1.5 billion in the world’s most popular cryptocurrency, but that it would soon would also accept crypto payments for its products. According to The Block, carmaker Coinbase used Coinbase in exchange.
Saylor called Tesla’s move a “turning point” and said the narrative surrounding belief in bitcoin was rapidly changing from skepticism to growing acceptance. He further said it was not ‘appropriate business decoration’ to comment on talks with a CEO of another public company, but accepted that their Twitter exchange had an impact on Tesla’s decision.
Saylor refutes the idea that bitcoin is an example of irrational exuberance on the part of investors, which involves enthusiasm for news about price increases. “If you’re looking for an example of real speculation, it’s going to be people speculating whether they can print others in a short time and a small stock like GameStop,” he said. “Bitcoin is no speculation, OK? Bitcoin is a unique new technology, it’s like the Facebook of money, or the Google of money. And in 12 years it’s grown from nothing to a trillion dollars’ worth of money.”
Bitcoin last traded at $ 57,380 in early European trading on Monday, but has risen by about 95% over the past twelve years and more than 885% over the past twelve years.
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Marc Lichtenfeld, a chief revenue strategist at The Oxford Group, said it was shocking that CEOs of listed companies were buying bitcoin with shareholder capital. “If bitcoin were to fall in price, shareholders would be significantly hurt,” he said. “And I suspect managers and directors will be dragged into court.”