Elon Musk\u2019s sudden u-turn regarding Bitcoin on Twitter – which sent prices plummeting by 15% – could be more of a PR stunt than anything else, says the CEO of one of the world\u2019s largest independent financial and fintech organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The observation from Nigel Green, deVere Group\u2019s chief executive, comes as the Tesla billionaire boss said the company will halt sales of cars using Bitcoin due to the environmental impact of mining that cryptocurrency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr Green comments: \u201cMusk is once again flexing his influencer muscles on social media. In a somewhat Trumpian move, he\u2019s taken to Twitter to announce a major u-turn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cJust a few months ago, to much fanfare, Musk announced that his company Tesla had bought $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin and that it would accept it as payment for cars. The move was one of the reasons the cryptocurrency\u2019s price has soared this year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He continues: \u201cAll of a sudden, he\u2019s not so keen due to environmental concerns. But why now? Those issues surrounding the environmental impact have not come up in the last few months? Did Musk seriously not know about them before he bought $1.5 billion Bitcoin?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere are serious and important environmental matters which urgently need to be addressed about Bitcoin mining. Any action to support the further transition to fully using sustainable energy must be championed \u2013 it is something I whole-heartedly support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAccording to research 76% of cryptocurrency miners currently use electricity from renewable energy sources as part of their energy mix. Which begs the question: why, with all his immense resources and power is Musk not able to ensure that all his Bitcoin is mined this way?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn addition, why is he not using this influence to further advance and incentivise renewable energy for cryptocurrencies \u2013 something that Twitter founder Jack Dorsey has previously tweeted about and with which Musk agreed on the social platform.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Could there also be another driver behind the Bitcoin move?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMusk likes being known as being a contrarian. He likes to go against the crowd in a high-profile way. Is his waning interest in Bitcoin at a time when huge amounts of institutional investment from major Wall Street banks is pouring in, part of this?\u201d asks Mr Green.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With the fundamentals of Bitcoin \u2013 the very ones that are attracting enormous institutional and retail interest remaining unchanged – many investors are likely to use this current price drop from recent all-time highs as an important buying opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Previously the deVere CEO observed that the inherent traits of cryptocurrencies are ever more attractive. \u201cThese characteristics include that they\u2019re borderless, making them perfectly suited to a globalized world of commerce, trade, and people; that they are digital, making them an ideal match to the increasing digitalization of our world; and that demographics are on the side of cryptocurrencies as younger people are more likely to embrace them than older generations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr. Green concludes: \u201cClearly, Musk still believes in Bitcoin \u2013 he didn\u2019t sell any – and I now hope he will use not just words but his immense resources to further expedite the transition to sustainable energy for crypto mining.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Elon Musk\u2019s sudden u-turn regarding Bitcoin on Twitter – which sent prices plummeting by 15% – could be more of a PR stunt than anything else, says the CEO of one of the world\u2019s largest independent financial and fintech organizations. The observation from Nigel Green, deVere Group\u2019s chief executive, comes as the Tesla billionaire boss […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":24692,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"1","_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_pr_autopilot_social_copy":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph_title":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph_description":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph_image":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph_image_id":0,"_yoast_wpseo_twitter_title":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter_description":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter_image":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter_image_id":0,"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":24,"_extra_hide_author_box":"","_extra_featured_post":"0","_partner_post_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n