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Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and CEO of Tesla Inc., arrives at the Axel Springer Award ceremony in Berlin, Germany on Tuesday, December 1, 2020.
Liesa Johannssen-Koppitz | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Elon Musk became a bitcoin supporter on Friday – and now he’s doubling down.
The boss of billionaire Tesla added the hashtag #bitcoin to his Twitter bio last week, in a move that helped briefly spike the price of the cryptocurrency by 20%.
During a chat on the popular Clubhouse audio app on Sunday night, Musk confirmed he was a bitcoin supporter.
“I have to watch what I’m saying here because some of these things can really move the market,” Musk said. “Many friends of mine have tried to convince me to get involved in bitcoin for a long time.”
Musk said he had already eaten a slice of the ‘bitcoin pie’ given to him by a friend in 2013, and that he “clearly … should have at least bought bitcoin eight years ago – talk about being in late to the party ”.
“At this point, I think bitcoin is a good thing, and I’m a bitcoin supporter,” Musk said.
“I think bitcoin is really on the verge of being widely accepted by mainstream finance people.”
Musk added that he did not have a “strong opinion” on other virtual currencies. He has tweeted about the memes-based cryptocurrency dogecoin in the past and noted in 2019 that it was his “favorite cryptocurrency”.
Last week, dogecoin soared to 800% within 24 hours after a tweet from Musk was taken by Reddit users to signify he was throwing his support behind the token.
“Every now and then I make dogecoin jokes, but they really are jokes,” Musk said on Sunday. “Dogecoin was used as a joke to make fun of cryptocurrencies.”
“But fate loves irony,” he added jokingly. “The most entertaining and ironic outcome would be for dogecoin to become Earth’s currency in the future.”
Cryptocurrency markets for the most part were not shaken by Musk’s comments, with bitcoin and dogecoin falling slightly shortly after his speech. Dogecoin was still up 40% in the past 24 hours, following a massive drop over the weekend.
The price of Bitcoin has more than quadrupled over the past year. It then hit a new all-time high of nearly $ 42,000 in early 2021. Bullish investors say the digital coin was boosted by increased institutional interest and the perception that it is a similar safe haven asset. so.
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