How Tesla's founder impacted the cryptocurrency market in 2021
In 2021, Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk was named Person of the Year in "TIME" magazine. The magazine noted the influence of the entrepreneur on life on Earth and, perhaps, beyond.
Regarding Musk's activity in social networks (esp. Twitter) as a supporter of digital assets, one cannot fail to note the enormous influence of a businessman on the entire crypto community.
Beginning 2021, the entrepreneur posted the hashtag of the first cryptocurrency in the description of his Twitter profile. After Musk's tweet, the bitcoin rate increased rapidly.
Later, the businessman again remembered BTC, saying that the cryptoasset is on the verge of large-scale adoption by representatives of the traditional market. The Tesla founder also called himself a "bitcoin supporter."
In February 2021, it became known that Tesla had invested $1,5 billion in BTC. It was announced that the company plans to integrate BTC as a payment instrument for its products. As a result, the BTC rate increased immediately.
The industry's reaction to Elon Musk's tweets about bitcoin has provoked criticism from crypto sceptics. Economist Nouriel Roubini suggested that the SEC examine the actions of Tesla's CEO concerning the purchase of BTC as a tool for market manipulations.
A bit later, Elon Musk's rhetoric regarding bitcoin changed radically. In May, Tesla stopped accepting payments for electric vehicles in BTC due to the unsustainable nature of mining. As a result, the bitcoin price fell by 15% to $ 46'200.
Another crypto coin that turned out to be one of the key topics for Musk's tweets was Dogecoin. In the winter of 2021, a businessman posted a photo of a Falcon 9 rocket and captioned Doge. In less than 60 minutes, the price of DOGE increased by almost 50%, reaching $ 0.059 per coin.
After that, Musk continued to manipulate the market, talking about Dogecoin as a "people's cryptocurrency", then calling the token "hype", which provoked another drop in the coin's value.
In September, SpaceX head posted a photo of Shiba Inu puppy named Floki. According to CoinGecko, the rate of Shiba Floki token in a few hours pumped on 1'300 %.
The crypto community has an equal mind Elon Musk perfectly know about his influence on cryptoindustry and what his tweets could make with coins. Another proof — Tesla founder's announcement in December 2021 of plans to sell the company's merchandise for Dogecoin. The price of the cryptoasset immediately increased by 39%.
According to the leading analyst of Exante Janis Kivkulis, the process of influencing the crypto market and how the quotes of digital currencies change could be both in Elon Musk's interest. And the positive experience of "pumping" Dogecoin can lead an entrepreneur to new attempts to do this, Kivkulis notes.
