Bitcoin Plunges, Rebounds on Elon Musk Tweets

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After Tesla’s U-turn on receiving Bitcoin payments, Elon Musk caused the crypto market to plunge by responding to a post suggesting that Tesla may sell its Bitcoin holdings. The market rebounded when he confirmed that Tesla had not sold its holdings.

“Just to Clarify”

Bitcoin fell to a three-month low early Monday on a one-word tweet from Elon Musk.

The self-described Technoking of Tesla replied “Indeed” to a post suggesting that the criticism of Tesla’s decision to halt Bitcoin payments may drive the company to sell their stake in the asset. BTC hit a low of $42,167 for the first time since February.

The market then started to recover when Musk posted a reply to a tweet noting that his prior tweet had caused the market to drop. Musk confirmed that Tesla had not sold any further Bitcoin since their Q1 earnings report. “To clarify speculation, Tesla has not sold any Bitcoin,” he wrote.

To clarify speculation, Tesla has not sold any Bitcoin

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 17, 2021

Bitcoin and other crypto assets have looked volatile over the last few days, thanks in no small part to Tesla confirming it would no longer accept Bitcoin as means of payment. Musk cited environmental concerns as a reason for the U-turn and has since discussed that he’s been looking into Dogecoin as a “potentially promising” sustainable alternative.

BTC is down 9% in the last 24 hours, trading at $45,272 at the time of writing. It’s not the only asset that’s suffered: various other coins including ETH, DOT, UNI, and Musk’s favorite DOGE are also in the red.

Disclaimer: The author held BTC, ETH, and several other cryptocurrencies at the time of writing.

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