Elon Musk.
Tesla Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Elon Musk on February 19 defended Tesla’s purchase of Bitcoin, saying that owning some of the digital currency is “adventurous enough” for an S&P 500 company.
“Tesla’s action is not directly reflective of my opinion. Having some Bitcoin, which is simply a less dumb form of liquidity than cash, is adventurous enough for an S&P500 company,” Musk tweeted.
Musk also said he is an engineer, not an investor, and that apart from his stock in Tesla, he does not own any equity.
To be clear, I am *not* an investor, I am an engineer. I don’t even own any publicly traded stock besides Tesla.
However, when fiat currency has negative real interest, only a fool wouldn’t look elsewhere.
Bitcoin is almost as bs as fiat money. The key word is “almost”.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 19, 2021
Musk even compared Bitcoin with fiat currency or government-issued currency that is not backed by a physical commodity, such as gold or silver.
Musk was responding to comments made by Changpeng Zhao, CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Binance in a Bloomberg interview.
“I’m surprised that Elon’s so gung-ho on Dogecoin,” Zhao said.
Zhao also noted that Tesla made a bet on Bitcoin, not meme-inspired Dogecoin, which Musk has frequently praised through his tweets.
Musk recently said he would support major Dogecoin holders if they sell most of their coins, adding that there is “too much concentration”. The Tesla CEO has also said he bought “some” Dogecoin for his infant son.
Tesla had earlier in February said it owned $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin, the world’s most valuable cryptocurrency. The automaker also said it might start accepting it as a form of payment for its products in the “near future”.
Musk’s tweets on shares and cryptocurrencies have recently moved markets. His tweets on Bitcoin and Dogecoin had caused an increase in the prices of the digital currencies.
In January, His tweet about shares of video game retailer GameStop caused a surge in the stock’s price. His tweet about messaging messaging app Signal caused a spike in shares of Signal Advance, an unrelated medical devices company.
