Markets mull Musk role in bitcoin turbulence

Markets mull Musk role in bitcoin turbulence

WASHINGTON: First he loved them, then he doubted them, but is he manipulating them? Tesla boss Elon Musk's tweets about cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are annoying their devotees and raising eyebrows among market watchers. The saga started in February when Musk's company Tesla announced it would buy $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin and later said it would accept the virtual currency as payment for its electric cars.

But in mid-May, he broke hearts with tweets questioning the digital asset, particularly its vast consumption of electricity produced from polluting substances like coal. That sent bitcoin on a downward spiral causing it to plunge to $30,000 from nearly double that 10 days earlier. It later regained some strength, climbing to about $37,000 as of Friday.

"The fact that more people aren't outraged at #ElonMusk for purposefully crashing the cryptos is astonishing. Stop worshipping him,“ one Twitter user said. The post, typical of the backlash the flamboyant executive has caused, included a hashtag combining an unprintable insult with his surname-and another Musk detractor went as far as to start a cryptocurrency using the hashtag.

Musk, who is most vocal on Twitter, continues to support dogecoin, another virtual currency that was created as a joke but has grown