Elon Musk says he invested in bitcoin, he wants to “see it succeed”

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But on Wednesday, Musk wanted to make it clear that he is both an investor and a supporter of cryptocurrencies.

Speaking at an event called The B Word which aimed to “explain how institutions can embrace Bitcoin” along with Twitter (TWTR) and Square (SQ) CEO Jack Dorsey and Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood, Musk said the only major personal investments he has outside his Tesla (TSLA) and SpaceX companies are in bitcoin, ethereum and dogecoin. He added that Tesla and SpaceX also own bitcoin. Despite the turmoil he has created recently in the cryptocurrency world, Musk has claimed to be “an advocate of bitcoin and the idea of ​​cryptocurrency in general.” The prices of several large cryptocurrencies, including Musk’s three properties, have been booming over the past few months in response to his statements and shares in Tesla. Dogecoin collapsed in May after Musk appeared on Saturday Night Live and called it “chaos.” In the same month, Musk said Tesla would stop accepting bitcoin as payment due to the huge amount of energy used to mine it, causing the price to drop.

But, ultimately, Musk said at the event that his financial success is in part tied to the performance of those digital currencies. And in Musk’s way, he phrased it in a way that could attract the attention of regulators.

“If the bitcoin price goes down, I lose money,” Musk said. “I could pump, but I don’t drain. … I definitely don’t believe in raising the price and selling, or anything like that. I’d like to see bitcoin succeed.”

A “pump and dump” is a type of stock fraud in which someone attempts to raise the price of an asset through false, misleading, or exaggerated claims (the “pump”) and then sells them to collect inflated prices (the “dump “), the type of scheme monitored and pursued by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Musk is no stranger to the agency. In 2018 he was charged with stock fraud for his use of Twitter, including to post information on Tesla’s prospects. He agreed to a deal requiring Tesla’s lawyers to review his posts about the company, which he has reportedly breached twice in the past two years. On Wednesday, Musk and Dorsey also addressed environmental concerns related to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which require huge amounts of energy to power the computers needed to “mine” them. There are a finite number of bitcoins, and computers have to complete complex equations to access (or “mine”) them and put them into circulation as the more bitcoins are mined, the more difficult and energy-consuming that process becomes. In May, Tesla suspended bitcoin transactions after Musk said he realized the cryptocurrency network could rely on coal-fired energy.

“Tesla’s mission is accelerating the advent of sustainable energy. We cannot be the company that does it and also not do proper diligence on the energy use of bitcoin,” Musk said. “Now, it appears that bitcoin is shifting much more towards renewable energy.”

Musk said the company is keeping bitcoin on its books and will likely start accepting bitcoin payments again when about half of the energy used to mine bitcoin comes from clean sources like solar and wind power, which he has already said. on Twitter. (Musk, however, is known for making promises and then retracing his steps.) Dorsey, whose company Square bought billions in bitcoin and created a cryptocurrency developer app, highlighted the potential to harness various forms of unused energy. to power cryptocurrency mining operations. He mentioned a company called Great American Mining, which captures methane flares on oil fields to power its bitcoin mining systems.

“Imagine all the unused energy that is wasted every single day, and being able to get energy and convert it into a secure and solid monetary system for the planet,” Dorsey said.

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