What Crypto Insiders think about Elon Musk's Bitcoin U-Turn

Cryptocurrency enthusiasts were surprised Wednesday when Elon Musk, founder of Tesla Inc., the second richest person on the planet, said on Twitter that his automaker will no longer accept bitcoin payments due to environmental concerns.

After all, this is the same guy who a few months ago said that Tesla bought Bitcoin for $ 1.5 billion. He tweeted "true" in response to a thread citing research indicating that token mining may actually stimulate the absorption of renewable energy, from Ark Investment Management LLC. Bitcoin mining is known to be energy-intensive, with the industry prizing cheap and powerful supplies.

Bitcoin plunged 15% to nearly $ 46,000 before recovering. It was down 6.4% to $ 51,039 as of 2:45 p.m. In Hong Kong.

Here's what some people in the crypto industry have to say about the development:

New heights await?

"This could be the selloff that is putting Bitcoin to an all-time high," said David Grider of Fundstrat Global Advisors LLC. "We think the news is overpriced and we wouldn't be surprised if Tesla hints at plans to make crypto 'greener'." In a note on Wednesday, Grider said that Bitcoin had been consolidating for months as its dominance of the market declined, but remained bullish, targeting $ 100,000.

Looking for an explanation

Investor Michael Terpin said: "The most logical answer is that he feels pressure" from people who think that "you can't be environmentally friendly and own cryptocurrencies", describing this position as "unknown."

First, virtually no energy is wasted sending Bitcoin; mining new currencies to keep the grid safe still represents far less energy (and 70% of it comes from renewable sources) than the amount of energy expended on gold mining in the world. systems ".

Watching other cryptocurrencies

Some critics did not miss the fact that Musk had set his sights on promoting a rival coin with a greener, possibly more subtle profile. One of the responses I liked the most on Twitter to Musk's original statement was from Billy Markus, co-founder of Dogecoin, the Shiba Inu-themed cryptocurrency that started as a joke in 2013. This has become a favorite token of Musk and beloved among the retail group of investors and enthusiasts.

"If only there was a built-in cryptocurrency that had a much smaller carbon footprint than Bitcoin, it would also have a dog on it," said Markus.

Does not add up

"Overall, it's a bit of a surprise given that Tesla bought Bitcoin for its vault in January, and the argument is the same whether you're using Bitcoin as a store of value or for transactional purposes," said Vijay Ayyar, Asia Pacific Head at Luno. Pte. , in an email. "So it's not working. Usually in such situations, there are unknown motives at play."

It cannot be

For some, the reaction was almost incredulous.

"Tell me your account got hacked without telling me that his account got hacked," Yassine Elmandjra, a crypto analyst at Ark, said in response to Musk's tweet.

Buying opportunity

Cameron Winklevoss, a long-time crypto enthusiast and co-founder of Gemini Trust Co. LLC, on Twitter: "Later, it was a great buying opportunity."

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