On Wednesday, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk joined Square CEO Jack Dorsey and ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood on a panel discussing Bitcoin, at The B Word online conference.
Musk revealed he holds a “significant” amount of Bitcoin, without revealing the number, while also acknowledging he also holds a smaller quantity of Ethereum and Dogecoin.
“The only thing I own of any significance beyond Tesla and SpaceX stock is Bitcoin, and then some Ethereum and Dogecoin,” said Musk. He added if Bitcoin goes down, he loses money. “I might pump but I don’t dump,” said Musk, noting he would like Bitcoin to “succeed”.
As for SpaceX, Musk revealed the space exploration company also holds Bitcoin and wouldn’t be selling it anytime soon. He also revealed he had one proposed an idea to SpaceX engineers to develop a space heater that would function as a cryptocurrency mining rig.
“I had this idea that was kind of off the wall,” said Musk, noting, “what if a space heater was also a bitcoin/ ethereum/ dogecoin miner?”.
As for Tesla accepting Bitcoin again? Musk said it would be possible once Tesla does “due diligence” to determine the cryptocurrency’s impact on the climate. He added there looks to be a “positive trend in the energy usage of Bitcoin,” and Tesla would take payments again when renewable energy was “at or above 50 per cent and that there is a trend towards increasing that number”.
"Tesla's bank balances in Europe have negative interest rate..it is quite annoying to see your bank balance drop in real time..this is insane..we definitely move that into #bitcoin" – @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/doRUnXiqSE
— Root 🥕 (@therationalroot) July 21, 2021
Musk also emphasized to cryptocurrency investors they need to own their own private keys, to ensure the safety of investments should third-party exchanges get hacked or assets seized by governments.
During the conference, Musk asked Dorsey about whether Twitter would accept Bitcoin payments for advertising, but the social media giant’s CEO dodged the question. “My hope is that it creates world peace,” said Dorsey, speaking about Bitcoin.
