Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been making headlines with the company’s recent decision to invest $1.5 billion (USD) into Bitcoin.
In response to a Twitter news story in which Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said he was “surprised” Musk was so keen on Dogecoin, Musk replied that he is “not an investor,” but rather an engineer.
In addition, Musk’s response said that “when fiat currency has negative real interest, only a fool wouldn’t look elsewhere.”
Tesla’s action is not directly reflective of my opinion. Having some Bitcoin, which is simply a less dumb form of liquidity than cash, is adventurous enough for an S&P500 company.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 19, 2021
In the tweet, Musk also wrote that “Bitcoin is almost as bs as fiat money. The key word is “almost,” signaling that he didn’t consider Bitcoin to be the end-all-be-all of liquidation, though he made it clear that fiat exchanges were not something that the company is interested in. So, cue the purchase of Bitcoin.
Fiat money is currency issued by and backed by a government, not tied to a commodity, like gold for example.
The comments follow after a number of Musk’s tweets about the meme cryptocurrency Dogecoin, which the internet has quickly picked up on, with the price of Dogecoin surging earlier this month.
To be clear, I am *not* an investor, I am an engineer. I don’t even own any publicly traded stock besides Tesla.
However, when fiat currency has negative real interest, only a fool wouldn’t look elsewhere.
Bitcoin is almost as bs as fiat money. The key word is “almost”.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 19, 2021
While Tesla’s move to buy Bitcoin was certainly one of the more interesting corporate moves we’ve seen, the company’s shares have also taken a tumble since the announcement.
But it’s worth noting Tesla will be close to making $1 billion on its Bitcoin investment if the latter keeps surging, which is quite significant for such a short period of time.
Tesla will be up an estimated $1B on their Bitcoin investment when $BTC hits about $56,000. $TSLA
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) February 19, 2021
Regardless, Tesla and Musk’s move to diversify its wealth holdings doesn’t seem like an arguable take, though more traditional financiers may take issue with his support of Dogecoin, since it started as a joke. However, Musk sees real-life growth and liquidation opportunities in the cryptocurrency world, so what better time than now for Tesla to jump on board?
