Crypto Investors Still Follow Elon Musk’s ‘Every Word’

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CoinDesk Learn editor Ollie Leech provides highlights from Elon Muks’ cryptocurrency discussion with Jack Dorsey and Cathie Wood.

Video transcript

– We want to bring in Ollie Leech, CoinDesk Learn publisher. And Ollie, we saw the price of ether, it actually peaked for the day right after these comments from Elon Musk. Dogecoin is also moving higher as a result of this. Guess, what’s your reaction just in terms of the fact that investors are so excited that someone like Elon Musk is still buying some of these cryptos?

OLLIE LEECH: Yeah, sure, that says a lot about the crypto market. I mean, for– the last few months a lot of people, and especially on crypto Twitter, have been particularly angry with Elon Musk, saying he’s pumping and throwing a lot of coins and now obviously he’s- – he invested in Ethereum, as well as obviously Bitcoin and Doge, and the price went up. So he clearly still has a grip on speculation – speculative traders. And people still hold on to his every word and seek to participate in whatever he gets involved in.

– But what about the words of the crypto founders? I mean, there’s Dogecoin, or Dodgy Coin, as some of us prefer to call it. The founder said, crypto – and he ranked the entire asset class as something to avoid, one of the co-founders. And then you get the co-founder, I believe, of Ethereum said something similar. If you are a crypto fan, what are you supposed to believe when these two people say danger, Will Robinson?

OLLIE LEECH: So, I mean, Jackson Palmer, the – the co-founder of – of Dogecoin, he left in 2015, at a time when the market was very driven by a lot of scam projects. There was a huge amount of projects entering the market every day. Many of them had no merit. They promised the world and scammed a lot of their investors.

And that’s what he kind of got away from. He said, I don’t want to be a part of this anymore. It is not about the innovation of technology. It’s more about making quick money and – and scamming people. So he left for that reason. Vitali Buterin, as I know, I think he’s still pretty – pretty positive about space. He’s obviously a big supporter of Ethereum theory and seeks to move space forward as far as possible, and most importantly through smart contracts, challenges, and all like that. He still plays an important role.

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– Ollie, another thing that popped up to me on this panel was when Musk asked Jack Dorsey whether or not he would consider whether or not Twitter would, should I say, accept crypto for advertisers, to pay for ads on the site. And Dorsey, in his response, seemed to indicate that he would be open to that. When you see that type of talk out there, the fact that crypto will become more mainstream, I guess, how much of a boost or an opportunity could that be for the space?

OLLIE LEECH: Yeah, absolutely huge. And I think the conversation in general was so important to the industry back then, you know, when there’s so much negativity and focus on things like, you know, crypto and ransomware and – and the threat. stable coins and money laundering. You know, it happened at an extremely important time and, yeah, and absolutely brilliant.

It’s great to see people like Dorsey and Elon looking for new ways to innovate in space. I mean, it’s great to even hear from Elon that he – that he wants Bitcoin to be successful. He said it himself. It’s like, people say I pump and I empty. He said, I actually own Bitcoin. Obviously, Tesla and now SpaceX are doing it too. And he said, you know, it would cripple me from – to – to – to throw him sort of. He wants it to work well. So incredibly important to the space, and it’s exciting to hear their vision of where they want it to go, too.

– Oh, Ollie, who are the voices? Because we pay so much attention to the same voices. What voices – because you at CoinDesk write about it all the time – that we should pay attention to, in addition to the old and aging crypto voices?

OLLIE LEECH: So who should we listen to, sorry?

– Yes.

OLLIE LEECH: Okay.

– About the likes of Elon Musk, I mean, if– Elon Musk can move the markets. But Elon Musk, in a way, is starting to … I don’t mean getting old. But there must be other people who have an idea besides the – we keep coming back to the same – you know, get the usual suspect together.

OLLIE LEECH: Yeah. I mean, it’s … yeah, I mean, Elon, he’s at the forefront of a lot of technical innovations. A lot of people look to him in terms of rising people. I draw the white a bit, to be honest. There is a lot of–

– It’s good. I didn’t mean to embarrass you.

OLLIE LEECH: -[INAUDIBLE] the industry we turn to. [LAUGHS] Put me on the spot.

– Well, are we? OKAY. So are we likely to go back to the usual suspects?

OLLIE LEECH: Yeah, I mean, space, there’s been some people over the last 10 years that really fought for – to get to the top, and others are really stuck. And I think that says a lot about who they are and their belief in space. And a lot of people came and went around that time. But – but the core, sort of 20, 30 people that a lot of people know are common names in the crypto space. These are the people who stayed. And I think that’s what gives them that kind of credibility and why so many people follow them because they understand they’re there for the long haul. They really see the potential. And yes, that’s why I think so.

– Ollie, another comment from Elon Musk was that Tesla would start accepting Bitcoin once Bitcoin switches to more renewable energy, and that’s something he’s said in the past. Obviously we saw Bitcoin drop once Tesla made the announcement, once Elon Musk made the announcement that they would no longer accept it because of the way it was mined. What is the likely timeline? I guess how long do you expect it to take to achieve what Tesla is looking for and therefore they would accept Bitcoin again?

OLLIE LEECH: In terms of timing and how quickly things can – can move on the energy front in terms of mining, I think if there’s such pressure right now to – to do Bitcoin mining and other evidence of work, cryptocurrency is more energy efficient. Jack Dorsey mentioned the Great American Mining Company, just one example of a company looking to use wasted energy and – and reuse it as – a means – to power crypto mining. So, yes, it could happen very soon. It really depends on how quickly these companies can get up to speed and make a name for themselves.

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