Elon Musk Just Sent Bitcoin Sharply Higher—Boosting Its Price Almost 20% – Forbes
Elon Musk Just Sent Bitcoin Sharply Higher—Boosting Its Price Almost 20% – Forbes
Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of Tesla TSLA who’s ridden the electric car-marker’s soaring share price toward to the top of the world’s rich lists this year , has boosted the price of bitcoin.
The bitcoin price, after dipping under $30,000 per bitcoin this week , suddenly leaped 20% higher after Musk changed his Twitter bio to “#bitcoin” and posted : “In retrospect, it was inevitable.”
MORE FROM FORBES Ex-Goldman Sachs CEO Issues Serious Bitcoin Warning Amid Price Crash Fears By Billy Bambrough Musk’s comments come after free-trading app Robinhood sparked an almighty row yesterday by restricting users from trading GameStop GME and other stocks that have become a battleground for bullish retail traders organised via Reddit’s WallStreetBets forum and Wall Street hedge funds that have long been shorting the stocks.
Robinhood, who joined other brokerages in limiting trader’s access to the frothy stocks, has said it plans to lift restrictions later today.
Following the ban, traders flocked to the famously-free-for-all cryptocurrency market , with dogecoin—a tongue-in-cheek bitcoin rival previously named by Musk as his “fav” cryptocurrency—adding a blistering 500% and climbing to just outside the cryptocurrency top ten.
MORE FOR YOU Exiting Robinhood Could Create A Tax Nightmare For Crypto Users After Robinhood Restricts GameStop, Bitcoin And Crypto Market Suddenly Soars Toward $1 Trillion—Dogecoin Price Rockets 200% Ex-Goldman Sachs CEO Issues Serious Bitcoin Warning Amid Price Crash Fears Musk’s bio change, as well as sending the bitcoin price sharply higher, was cheered by the bitcoin and cryptocurrency community.
“Bitcoin becomes the flag of technology, and all web services gradually get rebuilt on crypto,” technology investor and former Coinbase chief technology officer Balaji Srinivasan said via Twitter . “We’re going back to our roots: encryption, privacy, peer-to-peer, the rights of the individual, free expression, and decentralization of power.”
MORE FROM FORBES Major Tesla Investor Predicts Tech Companies Will Buy Bitcoin-Here’s What It Could Do To The Price By Billy Bambrough Musk has long flirted with bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, regularly posting about bitcoin (and dogecoin) on Twitter and praising it in interviews.
Earlier this month, Musk set the world of bitcoin and cryptocurrency alight when he said he would never turn down being paid in the bitcoin .
In December, Musk sparked wild speculation his electric car company could add bitcoin to its balance sheet during a public exchange on Twitter.
Billy Bambrough
I am a journalist with significant experience covering technology, finance, economics, and business around the world. As the founding editor of Verdict.co.uk I reported
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I am a journalist with significant experience covering technology, finance, economics, and business around the world. As the founding editor of Verdict.co.uk I reported on how technology is changing business, political trends, and the latest culture and lifestyle. I have covered the rise of bitcoin and cryptocurrency since 2012 and have charted its emergence as a niche technology into the greatest threat to the established financial system the world has ever seen and the most important new technology since the internet itself. I have worked and written for CityAM, the Financial Times, and the New Statesman, amongst others. Follow me on Twitter @billybambrough or email me on billyATbillybambrough.com. Disclosure: I occasionally hold some small amount of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
