“SpaceX, Tesla, and I own Bitcoin,” Elon Musk said at a Bitcoin conference today. Though Tesla no longer allows people to pay for cars using Bitcoin, the automaker hasn’t sold its Bitcoin, he said. “We’re not selling any Bitcoin, nor am I selling anything personally or nor is SpaceX selling any Bitcoin.”
In addition, Musk disclosed that he owned Ethereum and — unsurprisingly — Dogecoin. The price of Ethereum, which was already rising today, rose further on the disclosure. Dogecoin rose early in the panel to almost 21 cents, before dipping to about 19 cents by the end of the panel, according to Coindesk data. Musk spoke at a panel with Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter and payment company Square, and Cathie Wood, the founder and CEO of ARK Invest.
In February, Tesla disclosed it had invested $1.5 billion in Bitcoin; some of that investment was sold in the first quarter at a $101 million profit. Tesla started accepting Bitcoin in late March, then abruptly reversed itself in May, just 49 days later. The change was because of concern about Bitcoin’s energy use — and Tesla said it would resume accepting Bitcoin when mining became more environmentally sustainable.
“I might pump but I don’t dump,” Musk said today. “I definitely do not believe in getting the price high and selling or anything like that. I would like to see Bitcoin succeed.”
Musk has courted the opprobrium of some investors by clashing with people who believe Bitcoin is the only worthwhile cryptocurrency. Musk has said Dogecoin can “beat Bitcoin hands down.” Tesla’s reversal on Bitcoin as a payment method contributed to a crash in Bitcoin value in April. Bitcoin’s dip in value may have cost Tesla $90 million, Business Insider estimated in June.
At one point, Musk asked Dorsey if he would accept Bitcoin as a payment for advertising on Twitter. Dorsey dodged the question, though he’d earlier promoted his Bluesky project, first announced in announced in December 2019. By January this year, it didn’t seem to have gotten much further — Dorsey wrote that Twitter is still “in the process of interviewing and hiring folks” for Bluesky. “My biggest focus right now is on a decentralized social media protocol, we’re calling it Bluesky,” he said today. “It’s super, super early.”
But Dorsey’s ambitions for Bitcoin are high, even if he doesn’t think Twitter should accept it as a payment. “My hope is that it creates world peace,” Dorsey said of the cryptocurrency.
