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'A Good Thing': Elon Musk Says He's a Supporter of Bitcoin

It would be the most "entertaining and ironic outcome" if dogecoin "becomes the currency of [E]arth in the future," Musk also said.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk
Tesla CEO Elon Musk

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has clarified that he is a bitcoin supporter, if a bit "late to the party."

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Talking on invitation-only audio-chat app Clubhouse on Monday, Musk said, “I should have bought [bitcoin] eight years ago ... I do at this point think bitcoin is a good thing. I am a supporter."

The Tesla CEO further said bitcoin, the top cryptocurrency by market cap, is "on the verge of getting broad acceptance by conventional finance people." He added that he did not have a “strong opinion on other cryptocurrencies.”

Musk did address popular meme-friendly cryptocurrency dogecoin, saying he occasionally makes jokes about the coin. While dogecoin is "made as a joke," he said, it would be the most "entertaining and ironic outcome," if DOGE became the "currency of [E]arth in the future."

“Fate loves irony,” he said.

In the past, Musk has sometimes teased the crypto community by name-dropping bitcoin and dogecoin, but never clarified if he is a supporter any cryptocurrency.


Read more: Bitcoin Falls Back to $32K as Elon Musk’s Bio Change Fades Into Memory

The new comments come several days after Musk changed his Twitter bio to read "Bitcoin," prompting a 15% rise in the price of the cryptocurrency. The sudden rise also caused the liquidation of $387 million worth of bitcoin short positions.

At press time, bitcoin is up 2.2% over 24 hours at $34,376.

Tanzeel Akhtar

Tanzeel Akhtar has contributed to The Wall Street Journal, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Forbes Africa, Financial Times, The Street, Citywire, Investing.com, Euromoney, Yahoo! Finance, Benzinga, Kitco News, African Business Magazine, Hedge Week, Campden Family Office, Modern Investor, Spear's Wealth Management Magazine, Global Investor, ETF.com, ETF Stream, CIO UK, Funds Global Asia, Portfolio Institutional, Interactive Investor, Bitcoin Magazine, CryptoNews.com, Bitcoin.com, The Local, The Next Web, Mining Journal, Money Marketing, Marketing Week and more. Tanzeel trained as a foreign correspondent at the University of Helsinki, Finland and newspaper journalist at the University of Central Lancashire, UK. She holds a BA (Honours) in English Literature from the Manchester Metropolitan University, UK and completed a semester abroad as an ERASMUS student at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. She is NCTJ Qualified - Media Law, Public Administration and passed the Shorthand 100WPM with distinction. She does not currently hold value in any digital currencies or projects.

Tanzeel Akhtar