Elon Musk sends bitcoin crashing and dogecoin soaring with ‘$10 billion tweets’

Elon Musk’s incredible power over the cryptocurrency market is increasing after he sent bitcoin crashing and dogecoin soaring on Friday. 

If you’re going to invest in crypto, make sure you’re following Elon Musk on Twitter.

The billionaire Tesla CEO showed his incredible influence on Friday by simulataneously sending bitcoin crashing and dogecoin soaring with two tweets.

First, the 49-year-old stepped up his attack on bitcoin, sharing a graph which showed its electricity usage had soared during 2021.

Energy usage trend over past few months is insane, he posted.

In a previous tweet, he had revealed Tesla had suspended vehicle purchasing using bitcoin.

We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel, the statement reads.

Cryptocurrency is a good idea on many levels and we believe it has a promising future, but this cannot come at great cost to the environment. Tesla will not be selling any bitcoin and we intend to use it for transactions as soon as mining transitions to more sustainable energy. We are also looking at other cryptocurrencies that use

Musk’s stinging criticism stunned investors, given his vocal support of cryptocurrency, and his comments sent prices plunging, dropping 15 per cent at one point to less than $54,700.

Following the fall Musk

A $10 billion tweet... pic.twitter.com/tpQITbtKyb

— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) May 13, 2021

tweeted 

it is high time there was a carbon tax! before adding “to be clear, I strongly believe in crypto, but it can’t drive a massive increase in fossil fuel use, especially coal”.

Bitcoin mining uses vast amounts of energy to power specialised computers solving complex but useless mathematical problems.

And according to a Citigroup report released last month, bitcoin mining is “consuming 66 times more electricity than it did back in late 2015, and the carbon emissions associated with it will likely face increasing scrutiny”.

As of mid-April, global power demand by the bitcoin network probably reached an annualised 143 terawatt-hours, about 4 per cent higher than Argentina’s total electricity generation in 2019, the report said.

Musk’s statement is especially shocking, given it comes just a few months after the world’s richest man announced that Tesla would invest $1.95 billion in the cryptocurrency as well as accept it as payment for cars and other products.

But he may just be turning his attention elsewhere.

Dogecoin has become the fourth biggest cryptocurrency this year, largely off the back of Musk’s promotion.

After his bitcoin attack he tweeted about dogecoin. “Working with Doge devs to improve system transaction efficiency,” he wrote. “Potentially promising.”

Dogecoin immediately jumped as much as 20 per cent, helping it recover some of the losses from last week’s crash.

Musk has jokingly referred to himself as the Dogefather and discussed the meme-inspired digital currency during an appearance on Saturday Night Live last weekend.