Elon Musk Tweets ‘Diamond Hands’ During Bitcoin Plunge, Says Tesla Won’t Sell
A market-wide cryptocurrency dip didn’t faze Musk.
Tesla CEO and crypto kingpin Elon Musk evidently isn’t worried about Bitcoin’s latest massive crash.
Just a day after the plummeting of the cryptocurrency marketplace as a whole saw Bitcoin’s value halved at one point, Musk used emojis to say that Tesla has “diamond hands,” a phrase indicating that the market-leading EV company will not be selling its $1.5 billion stake in the world’s largest crypto.
Credit to our Master of Coin
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 19, 2021
Citing Coin Metric, CNBC reports Bitcoin plunged as much as 30 percent to just above $30,000—its lowest level since January—effectively undoing all positive impact Tesla’s Bitcoin purchase had. At the time of publication, Bitcoin’s value was hovering between $38,000 and $40,000.
The total effect of Musk’s “diamond hands” tweet will emerge in the coming days, but the tech mogul definitely had a hand in another recent Bitcoin crash.
Weeks after the EV maker bought $BTC, Musk tweeted that “Tesla has suspended vehicle purchases using Bitcoin,” citing environmental concerns reported in a University of Cambridge study.
“We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel,” Musk wrote.
Energy usage trend over past few months is insane https://t.co/E6o9s87trw pic.twitter.com/bmv9wotwKe
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 13, 2021
Bitcoin’s value then immediately dropped from $54,819 to a months-low of $45,700 before settling at around $50,000.
Many were critical of Tesla’s suspension of Bitcoin payments, including Barstool Sports boss Dave Portnoy.
“Elon Musk just tried to tank Bitcoin,” Portnoy said in a video per the New York Post. “Yeah, the same Elon Musk who had Bitcoin on Tesla’s spreadsheet and their balance sheet so Tesla can show a profit at the end of a quarter because they’re not selling cars, now suddenly Bitcoin’s bad.”
If you believe in #Crypto, you should love being able to buy the dips today #DDTG https://t.co/fJm3xtCZMp
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) May 19, 2021
Musk and Portnoy do share one crucial crypto philosophy: They’re both holding through the crash. Portnoy doubled down on his $40,000 investment in SafeMoon, a lesser-known “shitcoin” with a market cap of about $3.4 billion.
Meanwhile, the entire crypto market is down around 25 percent, or over $400 billion.
“Yeah, we’re in the danger zone,” Portnoy said in a recent video. “Crypto is falling apart as we speak. The great bubble—has it burst?”
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