Tesla CEO Elon Musk says he’s “late to the party” on bitcoin, but he’s a supporter now. He said in a Sunday interview on the Clubhouse social app that he believes the cryptocurrency is “on the verge of getting broad acceptance by conventional finance people.”
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Elon Musk supports bitcoin
In the interview on Clubhouse, Elon Musk said many friends have been trying to talk him into getting involved in bitcoin “for a long time.” He also said a friend gave him a slice of “bitcoin cake” in 2013 and that he should have bought some eight years ago, adding that he was “late to the party.” Musk was previously skeptical of cryptocurrencies, so when he added the hashtag #bitcoin to his Twitter bio on Friday, it was seen as an abrupt about-face.
Elon Musk thinks bitcoin “is a good thing” and officially confirmed that he supports the cryptocurrency. He also said he doesn’t have a “strong opinion” on any other digital currencies, although he has previously tweeted about dogecoin. In 2019, he said it was his favorite cryptocurrency. Musk tweeted about dogecoin last week, and Reddit users took his tweet to mean he supported the digital currency. They send dogecoin up by as much as 800% in just 24 hours.
Musk clarified in the interview on Sunday that sometimes he makes jokes about dogecoin but that they “are really just meant to be jokes.” He noted that dogecoin was made “as a joke to make fun of cryptocurrencies.”
Bitcoin price holding steady
Despite Elon Musk’s support, the bitcoin price didn’t change much after his interview. This morning, the cryptocurrency’s price climbed by a little over $1,000, but then it slipped back. The bitcoin price is up by over 260% over the last 12 months.
According to Coindesk, when Musk added the #bitcoin hashtag to his Twitter bio on Friday, it triggered a surge in the cryptocurrency’s price. The news site also reports that the hashtag’s addition resulted in $387 million in short liquidations on major exchanges, including Binance, BitMEX, Bitfinez and FTX. It’s the largest short liquidation since Jan. 2 when $575 million worth of bitcoin shorts were liquidated, according to Coinanalyze.
Coindesk noted that data suggests the bitcoin market is skewed bearish. Some market watchers were expecting the price to drop due to higher inflows to exchanges.
