Bitcoin, Ether, Dogecoin spikes in price after Elon Musk refuses to sell crypto holdings
Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Monday tweeted that he does not have any plans to sell any of his cryptocurrency holdings including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin. Following which, the prices of all the three mentioned cryptocurrencies spiked. According to cryptocurrency tracker CoinGecko, the price of Bitcoin spiked to $38,826 after trading at $37,725. Ethereum was trading at $2,503— went up to $2,595, post the tweet. And Dogecoin rose to $0.119 from $0.1107.
Musk had posted a question on Twitter asking thoughts on the probable rate of inflation over the next few years. Responding to his question, Michael Saylor, the chief executive officer (CEO) of MicroStrategy Inc said: “USD consumer inflation will continue near all time highs, and asset inflation will run at double the rate of consumer inflation. Weaker currencies will collapse, and the flight of capital from cash, debt, & value stocks to scarce property like #bitcoin will intensify.”
The SpaceX chief was not satisfied with the response. He replied back,“It is not entirely unpredictable that you would reach that conclusion.” Musk went on to explain that it is generally better to own physical things like a home or stock in companies you think make good products, than dollars when inflation is high.
“I still own & won’t sell my Bitcoin, Ethereum or Doge,” he tweeted.
Saylor retorted saying that “it is better to own scarce, desirable assets than currency derivatives in times of inflation. We agree on the general principle. The challenge lies in sorting out which things (including physical property, digital property, & corporate equity) are most scarce & desirable over time.”
This development comes as Musk announced in December that electric carmaker Tesla will accept Dogecoin for merchandise on a test basis.“Tesla will make some merch buyable with Doge and see how it goes,” he said in a tweet. Tesla sells merchandise such as apparel, belt buckle, mini models of its vehicles, quad bike ‘Cyberquad’ for kids and ‘Cyberwhle’ modeled after its much-awaited Cybertruck.
In other news, Musk announced earlier, that its supercharging station at Santa Monica will soon accept cryptocurrency Dogecoin as a mode of payment.
Meanwhile, in a recent interview with Time magazine, Musk endorsed Dogecoin over any other crypto coin. “The transaction value of Bitcoin is low and the cost per transaction is high. At least at a space level, it is suitable as a store of value. But fundamentally, Bitcoin is not a good substitute for transactional currency,” adding that even though Dogecoin was created as a silly joke, it is better suited for transactions.
