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Musk reports Tesla could resume trading BTC Musk says Tesla sold around 10% of BTC holdings as a liquidity test
SINGAPORE, June 14 (Reuters) – Bitcoin topped $ 40,000 on Monday, after another weekend of price swings following tweets from Tesla boss Elon Musk, who fended off criticism of his influence in the market and said Tesla had sold bitcoin but could resume transactions using it.
Bitcoin has been on Musk’s view for months since Tesla announced a $ 1.5 billion bitcoin purchase in February and said it would take cryptocurrency as payment. He later said the electric car maker would not accept bitcoin over concerns over how mining for currency requires high energy consumption and contributes to climate change.
“When there is confirmation of reasonable (~ 50%) clean energy use by miners with a positive future trend, Tesla will resume allowing Bitcoin transactions,” Musk said on Twitter on Sunday. Read more
Bitcoin, which jumped nearly 10% on Sunday, topping its 20-day moving average, rose 4.3% on Monday to 40,692.27, its first foray above $ 40,000 in more than two weeks. Read more
“Musk’s words made bitcoin soar,” said Simon Peters, market analyst at eToro.
Bitcoin was also backed on Monday after billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones told CNBC on Monday that bitcoin is a great way to protect long-term wealth and is part of his portfolio just like gold.
Representations of the Bitcoin virtual currency can be seen in front of the Tesla logo in this illustration taken on February 9, 2021. REUTERS / Dado Ruvic / Illustration
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Bitcoin prices have also been helped by software company and main bitcoin funder MicroStrategy (MSTR.O) who have raised half a billion dollars to buy bitcoin, said Bobby Ong, co-founder of the CoinGecko crypto analysis website. Read more
Bitcoin is up around 40% this year, but has collapsed after a record spike above $ 60,000 amid a regulatory crackdown in China and Musk’s seemingly faltering enthusiasm for it. Shares of Tesla (TSLA.O) have fallen about 30% since the company bought bitcoin.
Musk’s tweet was made in response to an article based on remarks by Magda Wierzycka, director of cybersecurity firm Syngia (SYGJ.J), who, in a radio interview last week, accused him of “price manipulation” and sale of “much” of its exposure.
“This is incorrect,” Musk said. “Tesla only sold around 10% of the holdings to confirm that BTC could be liquidated easily without moving the market.”
Musk had tweeted in May that Tesla “will not sell any bitcoin” and “will not sell any bitcoin”, but investors are anxiously awaiting Tesla’s next earnings update – scheduled for next month – for any disclosure of changes in his position.
Musk took issue with the vast computational power required to process bitcoin transactions, and in early June posted messages appearing to bemoan a break with bitcoin. Read more
Reporting by Tom Westbrook; Editing by Jacqueline Wong
Our Standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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