Last week, Tesla boss Elon Musk shocked Tesla fans and the crypto community alike with a U-turn: After a few months in which the e-car pioneer accepted Bitcoins as a means of payment, this is over again. Musk cited the climate-damaging effects of Bitcoin mining and payments as the reason – and triggered a price slide with the exit of his company and the sale of Bitcoins worth several million US dollars, as reported by several media outlets.
Since then, there have been more and more critical voices on Twitter – Musk’s favorite medium for PR. Several users report sleepless nights since their crypto investments crash. Others are asking Musk to post positive tweets about Bitcoin to help it rise again. It doesn’t really matter what topics Musk is expressing himself on, many of the worries about Bitcoin accumulate.
Elon Musk’s Problem Power: How A Man Influences The Market
This shows how interwoven the public image of Elon Musk is with his position – whether as a Tesla boss or a crypto investor, what he does or doesn’t do in one area affects the other. Once again, Musk himself provides an example of how problematic his enormous influence is – which on the other hand also sheds light on anyone who makes their own decision, whether to invest, buy a car, or the like, dependent on the opinion of a single man.
For Elon Musk himself, the effects are likely to be rather minor, although the tumbled Bitcoin price and the ailing Tesla share have already thrown him back from the richest man in the world to 3rd place.
China Bans Banks From Trading Cryptocurrencies
For crypto investors, the current week is exhausting anyway. Other leading cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and Binance Coin posted significant losses. China, where a large part of the world’s crypto volume is mined, also banned banks and financial service providers from doing business with cryptocurrencies on Tuesday, reports Reuters. This relates to investments in business models related to crypto as well as direct trading. Private individuals are still allowed to own cryptocurrencies in China.
