THE STORY OF ELON MUSK AND HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH CRYPTO
How did one of the most influential crypto personas find himself in the world of crypto?
Coo! It’s me again, Crypto Owl! This Friday is National Hammock Day, so, I think it’s a really good chance to:
-find one in your attic,
-bring it outside,
-attach it between two trees,
-lay back, relax, and read today’s crypto news!
Sounds good? OOOOKAY, let’s go!
For Today’s Menu:
👨🍳 CHIEF’S SPECIAL DISH: How Did Elon Musk Find Himself In Crypto?
🍧 DESSERT: More Crypto News Around the Web
🥤 SPRITE → Jack Dorsey Is “All In” On Bitcoin!
We all know Elon Musk, and we all know that he is super influential both in the tech and crypto worlds.
But do you know how it all started? There’s a story full of exciting facts about Elon Musk for you.
The wealthiest man in the world was born in 1971 in South Africa. At age 10, Elon found a hobby: computing and video games. Future to be billionaire, learned computer programming using a manual, and at age 12, he coded his first video game and sold it for about $500. Interesting fact: Elon's father was an electromechanical engineer and pilot, so maybe he influenced young Musk with space and how to reach that? Just a thought.
As a young child, Elon was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome. On top of that, he was bullied throughout childhood. Once, he was even hospitalized because bullies threw him down the stairs.
At the age of 17, Elon moved to Canada. He went to several universities in Canada, and later Musk got his Bachelor's degrees in Economics and Physics at the University of Pennsylvania. Another interesting fact: while he was studying in Pennsylvania, Musk with his friend rented a large house and turned it into a nightclub;
In 1995, Musk moved to California and started to attend Stanford University, but after two days changed his mind, dropped the University, and started to pursue his own business; a brave move, I'd say!
In the same year, Elon with his brother Kimbal founded the web software company called Zip2, as well as Musk co-founded online bank X.com.
In 2000, Musk founded PayPal (in 2002, eBay bought Paypal for $1.5 billion), a widely recognized company operating an online payments system;
In 2002 (only being 31!) Elon founded SpaceX - a space transport services company and an aerospace manufacturer;
In 2004, he was one of the early investors in Tesla Motors, which we now know just as Tesla. Musk became the company's CEO in 2008;
In 2013, Musk almost sold Tesla for Google. But, after 11 hours, the deal was halted because one of Tesla's car model sales began to pick up; I'm starting to see the pattern - Musk shifts and changes his decisions super fast.
In 2014, Musk opened a school called "Ad Astra" (from the Latin, it means "to the stars") for his own children and the children of SpaceX employees; all the other schools must have been too lame;
As years went by, Musk hasn't stopped founding high innovation companies. 2015 was the year when Musk co-founded OpenAI (NPO that promotes artificial intelligence use); the following year, he co-founded Neuralink (a neurotechnology company to integrate the human brain with artificial intelligence), and The Boring Company (a company that makes intra-city transit systems);
In 2018, Musk was sued by the SEC. The reason was a tweet about Tesla taking as private; according to the lawsuit, the tweet was "false, misleading, and damaging to investors," and for that, Musk and Tesla had to pay a $20 million fine separately and step out of the CEO position for free years. Nonetheless, he returned to it and later tweeted that he has no regret in posting the scandalous tweet.
In April 2022, Musk announced that he aims to buy Twitter (his first wish to do that was advertised (again) on Twitter back in 2017). But as we all know, he recently changed his mind (surprise?), and the legal battle in court is happening currently.
But how did crypto find a place in Elon’s life?
Musk was a true crypto evangelist a long time ago, especially for Bitcoin. Rumors spread that Elon is the mysterious Bitcoin creator - Satoshi Nakamoto. Musk tweeted, "Well, now Satoshi Nakamoto has been discovered; I guess it is closed." Probably the first crypto-related Tweet from him.
In October 2014, Musk gave an interview for Vanity Fair's New Establishment Summit, and as he was asked about Bitcoin, Musk replied shortly: "probably a good thing." He added that Bitcoin will be used for "legal and illegal transactions; otherwise, it would have no value." Strong personality, strong opinion, right?
However, it is suspected that Musk's skepticism could have affected Bitcoin's price drop. In 2014, Bitcoin reached its all-time-high (around $1,100), and after Musk commented about illegal transactions, the price dropped and stayed almost flat (average was $600-$400) for about three years.
Elon was quiet about his opinions on cryptocurrencies until 2019, when he started talking about crypto as an investment opportunity and a technology. Musk said Bitcoin's structure is "quite brilliant." See - again - changing his mind.
And in the same year, Musk, for the first time, tweeted about a well know meme-coin called Dogecoin:
From that day, Musk tweeted about Dogecoin regularly. It was evident that Dogecoin's price rise was dependable because of Elon's Tweets.
I would say that Musk showed his strong belief in Bitcoin as in 2020, he announced that Tesla bought $1.5 billion in Bitcoin and would accept BTC payments, which also increased the Bitcoin price.
Then he changed his mind (no way…) and said that Bitcoin is too bad for the environment, and these words made Bitcoin's price drop.
Then Musk said that he hadn't sold the Bitcoin yet, and the price stabilized.
So I could go on and on about price changes, but it’s enough to look at this graph that concludes everything:
Musk reminds me of a puppet master - he holds everyone in the crypto community attached to his influence and uses it as strings to correct the community in his own way.
But, admit it - love it, or hate it - Elon Musk is an exceptional person. He did lots of innovative things for our world, and I'm sure 100% that he's going to do so much more.
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🥤 SPRITE
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Disclaimer: This newsletter is strictly educational. None of this information is intended to be financial advice. Always do your own research and act responsibly with your profits.