On that day exactly six years ago, Tesla CEO Elon Musk set Twitter a tailspin by tweeting to his 23 million followers if they wanted to buy Bitcoin.
The character that appeared with the playful tweet looked like an anime style character dressed in a Bitcoin branded outfit, gaining the immediate attention of the crypto community.
Yet the post also prompted speculation that Musk’s account had been hacked, and his account was suspended temporarily as a result.
Bitcoin Payments Halted by Tesla
Musk also namedropped BTC for the first time publicly on a social media platform he would purchase several years later. Since then, Bitcoin’s price has been soaring, up by a stunning 1,000% or more to an estimated $67,328 per coin, according to CoinGecko data.
Musk’s BTC sojourn didn’t end there. In January of 2020 he went back to Tweeting about BTC after more than a year of silence. With a playful, tongue-in-cheek tone, his tweets usually had a serious tone as well.
As early as 2021, Tesla’s Musk became a signifier when his company bought $1.5 billion worth of BTC, pushing the cryptocurrency over $50,000 for the first time and kick starting what is now a massive bull market.
Musk’s enthusiasm for Bitcoin grew as quickly as it seemed to wane though. The Tesla stopped accepting BTC payment, citing environmental concerns. Musk followed it up by having a series of debates with BTC supporters on Twitter, and even clarified in 2021 that he is not Bitcoin’s elusive creator, Satoshi Nakamoto.
BTC was Musk’s last mention of BTC on Twitter back in May of 2022. But just a few weeks ago, he spoke out on cryptocurrency, saying that it supports ‘individual freedom.’
There was buzz when Tesla suddenly shifted a large chunk of its Bitcoin into mysterious wallets, sparking questions over whether the car maker is liquidating the rest of its remaining BTC holdings. The crypto world has been questioning what’s next as the relationship of Musk with Bitcoin has certainly evolved.
