When Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk revealed his company’s Bitcoin (BTC) exposure and announced the launch of crypto payments, BTC took off to reach its all-time high. Shortly thereafter, however, Musk started tweeting about concerns over BTC’s environmental impact and Tesla reversing its crypto payments policy, leading to Bitcoin losing half of its value and the entire crypto market capitulating. In short, Musk tweets lukewarm support for crypto, and the prices go up; Musk posts a meme hinting at his “breakup” with Bitcoin, and the prices go down.
For a sector that prizes disintermediation and wide distribution of economic power above all else, the cryptocurrency space has handed a single man way too much sway over its fortunes. The hope is that, sooner rather than later, the crypto market will get over its Musk addiction. At this point, however, the tech mogul’s Twitter talk is one of the most influential exogenous factors moving digital asset prices.