Elon Musk on Tuesday changed his opinion on Bitcoin again, this time rallying behind the cryptocurrency that Donald Trump has been supporting since he became the US President for the second time earlier this year.
In a post on X, the Tesla CEO said that Bitcoin’s energy-based foundation is exactly what makes it valuable — a U-turn from what he said in 2021.
Musk was replying to a post made by a user that claimed governments are funding the “artificial intelligence arms race” by printing money, which is driving prices of gold, silver and Bitcoin to new highs.
“But you can’t print energy,” the user wrote.
Agreeing with the opinion, Elon Musk wrote, “True. That is why Bitcoin is based on energy: you can issue fake fiat currency, and every government in history has done so, but it is impossible to fake energy.”
Bitcoin uses energy through Bitcoin mining. The process requires intense amounts of energy, or more precisely electricity, to power computers and solve complex mathematical puzzles.
Through Bitcoin mining, the network is secured and new BTC enter the system.
For about three weeks back in 2021, Elon Musk had become the biggest supporter of Bitcoin.
The apex cryptocurrency rallied at the time due to Musk’s support, and even so when Tesla started accepting Bitcoin as a valid payment method to purchase its cars. On X, users called him the messiah of decentralisation.
But all this did not even last a month. The market cap of Bitcoin vapourised overnight over a single tweet made by the Tesla CEO, calling the network’s electricity use “insane,” citing data from Cambridge University’s Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index.
The downfall continued as Tesla stopped accepting Bitcoin as a method of payment and later shed 75 per cent of its BTC holdings in 2022, for a rough amount of $936 million.
However, Tesla at present still holds 1,509 BTC, worth $1.3 billion, according to on-chain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence. This is down from a peak of 43,200 BTC holdings in 2021. The fact that Tesla still has BTC investment indicates that Elon Musk never really left the building, he just switched off the lights.
Since then, Musk’s tone on Bitcoin has shifted drastically. During his fallout with Donald Trump earlier this year, the Tesla CEO said that his newly floated “America Party” will embrace the cryptocurrency.