‘I am a supporter of bitcoin’

Elon Musk is doubling down on his flirtation with bitcoin.

Early Friday, the billionaire Tesla boss included the hashtag #bitcoin to his Twitter bio, in a move that served to briefly drive up the selling price of the cryptocurrency by as significantly as 20%.

In a discussion on the popular Clubhouse audio chat app late Sunday (Pacific time), Musk confirmed he was a supporter of bitcoin.

“I have obtained to enjoy what I say right here since some of these things can actually move the industry,” Musk said. “Several buddies of mine have attempted to persuade me to get involved in bitcoin for a lengthy time.”

Musk stated he the moment ate a slice of “bitcoin cake” specified to him by a close friend in 2013, and that he “obviously … really should have at minimum purchased some bitcoin 8 decades ago — discuss about staying late to the party.”

“I do at this issue imagine bitcoin is a good thing, and I am a supporter of bitcoin,” Musk said.

“I believe bitcoin is truly on the verge of getting wide acceptance by typical finance folks.”

Musk extra that he doesn’t have “sturdy opinion” on other virtual currencies. He has tweeted about the meme-based cryptocurrency dogecoin in the earlier, and in 2019 he indicated that it was his “fav cryptocurrency.”

Very last 7 days, dogecoin skyrocketed as significantly as 800% in the area of 24 hrs just after a tweet from Musk was taken by Reddit buyers to indicate he was throwing his help powering the token.

“Occasionally I make jokes about dogecoin but they are really just intended to be jokes,” Musk claimed Sunday. “Dogecoin was created as a joke to make exciting of cryptocurrencies.”

“But fate loves irony,” he added jokingly. “The most entertaining outcome and the most ironic result would be that dogecoin turns into the currency of Earth in the foreseeable future.”

Cryptocurrency marketplaces were generally unmoved by Musk’s remarks, with bitcoin and dogecoin essentially falling a bit soon following he spoke. Dogecoin was nevertheless up 40% in the very last 24 several hours, immediately after a enormous slump around the weekend.

Bitcoin far more than quadrupled in value over the course of past calendar year. It then strike a new all-time higher of almost $42,000 at the starting of 2021. Bullish traders say the electronic coin has gotten a enhance from enhanced institutional curiosity and the perception that it is a safe-haven asset akin to gold.