The US billionaire and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX has now revealed he is a “supporter” of the digital currency. Speaking on social media app Clubhouse yesterday, he admitted he was “late to the party” on backing it.
Bitcoin is known as a ‘cyptocurrency’ – a form of digital money which uses cryptography to secure online transactions and keep track of them.
The currency can fluctuate wildly in value. Since the start of December 2020, Bitcoin has soared in price from just under $19,000 USD (£13,880) to over $40,000 on January 8 2021.
It then sank to around $30,000 towards the end of the month.
However, on Friday 29 Bitcoin surged to more than $38,000 as Mr Musk edited its name into his Twitter biography, according to reports.
On Monday, Mr Musk said on Clubhouse: “I am late to the party but a supporter.
“I think Bitcoin is on the verge of getting broad acceptance by conventional finance people.”
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The sentiment on Reddit is largely one of defiance against Wall Street, with the aim being to make hedge funds lose money as the latter are betting Gamestop stock prices will go down in a process known as ‘shorting’.
On Twitter, Mr Musk replied to a user who stated that shorting should be made illegal, writing simply: “Yes.”
He also appeared to hit out at “shorty apologists,” stating: “Give them no respect.”
In other news, Mr Musk has also made headlines after revealing his other company Neuralink has installed microchips into the brains of monkeys.
He has said the firm will work on solving brain and spinal injuries, but in the long term will attempt “human/AI symbiosis”.
Animal rights charity PETA has hit out at Neuralink for its use of animals in tests, encouraging Mr Musk to test the product on himself instead.
It said last year: “PETA challenges Elon Musk to behave like a pioneer and implant the Neuralink chip in his own brain rather than exploiting smart, sensitive pigs who didn’t volunteer for surgery, don’t appreciate that he provides pats and a straw cell, and should be left out of pie-in-the-sky projects.”
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