It has been widely reported in recent days that Elon Musk has purchased $1.5bn in BitCoin and this has at least in part driven the recent and unprecedented surge in BitCoin. He also added that he had every intention of using BitCoin in the near future as a form of payment (personally I'm not convinced this could work - StableCoin yes but BitCoin probably not).
It's hard to believe that in September the same Bitcoin that cost ?7,500 was hovering around ?35,000 earlier this week.
Musk is well-known for his fast and lose Tweets that in many ways make Donald Trump's tweeting pastime look conservative. The fact is that unlike most of us who have at best moderate Crypto portfolios Musk is able to shift such huge amounts of currencies around that he can have a direct influence on the market and who knows probably can even create the ultimate pump and dump scenario.
In this Musk is probably the world's largest whale.
However, according to an article that appeared on Forbes website, questions have been raised about how Musk's online activity affects the Crypto-Market and in particular Bitcoin.
Musk has openly declared that he is a bit fan of BitCoin by saying:
"I am a supporter of bitcoin. I am late to the party but a supporter. I think bitcoin is on the verge of getting broad acceptance by conventional finance people,"
And if anybody is in any doubt about his influence on the market, his recent support of DogeCoin has also led to it seeing unprecedented growth.
Ok so, so far I have pretty much regurgitated what the article (referenced below) has said so it is important that I add some original analysis which I will provide in the form of bullet points often in the form of a question.
- whales like Musk undoubtedly have a massive influence on Crypto Prices. Personally at most I think I managed to own at one point 0.025 BitCoin as part of a diversified portfolio.
- is it right that such power is concentrated in the hands of so few individuals? After all isn't that one of the reasons people favour crypto over elitist banks?
- how should we approach investments? Should we follow whales like Musk and jump onboard and hope to hold on to his coat tails and makes some profit as we do so. This may have worked this time, but what can make us can also destroy us.
- the role of such influential players in the game could create market instability. What if somebody with a fake account purportedly pretending to be Musk makes a statement that can drive the market. Ok most people will recognise it as a scam, but enough people will buy into the fake news and it may just be enough to impact the market.
- is the authorites questioning of Musk's Tweets out of a desire to see greater regulation (= control)? One of the things the community likes about Crypto is the freedom that comes with investing in it. Should there be greater regulation?
As you can see I have raised many questions - and honestly I don't know the answers. It'll be interesting to know what others think.
Have a nice day and stay safe and warm (-12c here today!)
