Tesla and SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk has claimed that he has never told people to invest in crypto. This comment is coming following a decline in the market that has seen major assets lose around 70% of their value.
In an interview with Bloomberg yesterday, the world’s richest man was asked about the “carnage” on the cryptocurrency market and if people should still invest in decentralised assets after what the market experienced in the last month, and his response was not quite enthusiastic and bullish for the market.
Specifically, Musk denied ever saying that people should invest in crypto but confirmed having some investment in Bitcoin.
“I have never said that people should invest in crypto. In the case of Tesla, SpaceX, myself, we all did buy some Bitcoin, but it’s a small percentage of our total cash assets, so not all that significant.”
Elon Musk has always been a proponent of cryptocurrency, often tagging it the “currency of the future”.
Has Musk ever advised people to buy crypto?
His companies, SpaceX and Tesla accept crypto payments and he has disclosed plans of incorporating that into a social media giant, Twitter when he takes over fully.
However, a background check shows that Elon has never explicitly advised people to invest in crypto, though he often uses his Twitter account for promoting crypto (especially dogecoin).
Having a cursory look at Musk’s Twitter history, Musk does not seem to have ever uttered the words “people should invest in crypto” or any sort of similar straightforward investment recommendation regarding cryptocurrency.
Interestingly, Elon Musk once advised his followers to invest with caution. Ahead of his appearance on “Saturday Night Live” on NBC on May 8, 2021, Musk wrote on Twitter:
“Cryptocurrency is promising, but please invest with caution!”
On the same day, Musk also linked a video to an interview he did with TMZ in February 2021, where he expressed the same sentiment.
“People should not invest their life savings in cryptocurrency, to be clear, That’s unwise.”
He further said: “if you want to speculate and have some fun — there’s a good chance that crypto is the future currency of Earth. Then it’s like, which one is it going to be? Maybe there will be multiple. But, it’s all speculation at this point.”
Those past tweets validate his claim that he has never told people to invest in crypto.
Elon Musk’s support for Dogecoin continues
Despite the billionaire facing a $258 billion lawsuit for his long-term support for dogecoin, the ‘Dogefather’ continues to emphasise his support for the popular memecoin.
At the Qatar Economic Forum video interview yesterday, Musk said:
“I intend to personally support Dogecoin, because I just know a lot of people who are not that wealthy who have encouraged me to buy and support Dogecoin—so I’m responding to those people,”
Musk further stated in the interview that his employees have asked him to support the cryptocurrency, saying that “when I walk around the factory at SpaceX or Tesla, they’ve asked me to support Dogecoin, so I’m doing so”.
Market reaction
$DOGE shot up after Musk affirmed his support for it on Twitter over the weekend, saying he was still accumulating the meme coin despite undergoing massive losses.
And now, after Elon repeated his support for it yesterday at the Qatar Economic Forum in Doha, the parody coin is 21.17% up in the last 7 days, trading around $0.063, according to data from Coinmarketcap.
However, dogecoin is still 91.17% down from its all-time high of 0.74 thirteen months ago.
Technext Newsletter
Get the best of Africa’s daily tech to your inbox – first thing every morning.
Join the community now!
