Elon Musk is CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, presently the world’s richest person. But not only that. He’s a cryptocurrency enthusiast, serial meme sharer, Mars colonization planner, and the TIME’s Person of the year.
Musk often tweets about different cryptocurrencies and impacts their prices by just simply tweeting about it. The famous altcoin, Shiba Inu’s prices jumped several times last year after Musk repeatedly posted images of his puppy, Shiba Inu, on Twitter.
Don’t know what Cryptocurrency is?
See: Crypto Explained
However, more interestingly, in his recent interview with TIME Magazine, Elon Musk has denied any role in his tweets sending cryptocurrency markets into a tizzy.
But Musk is among a handful of people related to a phenomenon called the ‘Musk Effect.’ The effect denotes that every time Elon Musk tweets about cryptocurrency or a commercial product. Musk fans and cryptocurrency enthusiasts have seen a rise in the values of the cryptocurrencies and the sale of the products otherwise.
What cryptocurrencies does Elon Musk own?
Elon Musk, Tesla CEO and prominent crypto investor, only needs to mention the keyword “crypto” in one of his many famous tweets. His tweets make headlines in most business-focused news globally as soon as that happens.
Crypto enthusiasts didn’t even have to work too hard to get Elon to reveal his cryptocurrency portfolio. He revealed the composition of his cryptocurrency portfolio while answering the question of another Twitter user. That revelation has a quite surprising exclusion.
In an interesting post on his favorite social media platform Twitter, he revealed that he has personally invested in only 3 cryptocurrencies. And even though he claims not to own any Shiba Inu Coin, still the price of the comparatively small altcoin surged to a new all-time high in the recent past, seemingly after a series of tweets.
One thing about the billionaire’s crypto portfolio that might surprise most people reading this is that Elon Musk doesn’t hold more coins. He has often said that the following cryptocurrency is the only three he owns in a significant manner:
- Bitcoin
- Ethereum (ETH)
- Dogecoin (DOGE)
He revealed this in a famous tweet that said, “Out of curiosity, I acquired some ASCII hash strings called “Bitcoin, Ethereum & Doge.” That’s it.”
Musk tweeted this in response to users asking him about his investment in meme tokens. “As I’ve said before, don’t bet the farm on crypto! True value is building products & providing services to your fellow human beings, not money in any form,” he added.
The famous Dogecoin, which Elon Musk mentioned in his appearance as a host on the American late-night comedy show Saturday Night Live some time back, is also in his crypto portfolio.
What about Shiba Inu?
Elon Musk’s crypto portfolio includes Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin but doesn’t include Shiba Inu Coin. Important to note: The recently surging Shiba Inu Coin is not part of Musk’s crypto investment strategy.
This comes as a bit of a surprise since the South Africa-born investor has often shared pictures of the dog breed with the same name as the popular altcoin. For that reason, many crypto fans concluded that Musk was invested in Shiba Inu Coin.
Thereby, the Shiba Inu Coin may have lost one of its best-known supporters, but that did not negatively impact the surging cryptocurrency price. Recently, the Shiba Inu Coin hit a new all-time record high and is currently worth US$.000048 per coin.
Musk also revealed that he owns Bitcoin more than anything else and confirmed that SpaceX and Tesla own Bitcoin. “The Bitcoin that I own is worth much more than the Ethereum or Doge,” Musk has said in the past.
Musk went on to say, “I might pump, but I don’t dump,” and he doesn’t resist a chance to share his views on Doge as well. Musk explained that he is fond of Dogecoin because “…it doesn’t take itself too seriously.”
The crypto enthusiast reiterated that he is interested in this game in the long term, but “the most ironic & entertaining outcome would be that despite being started as a joke to make fun of cryptocurrencies, it ends up being number one.
So, long story short, in the tweet mentioned above, Musk claims that he has only invested in three cryptocurrencies. They include the two biggest and most important digital currencies globally, Bitcoin and Ethereum, in addition to Dogecoin (DOGE).
The Tale of Musk’s relationship with Bitcoin
Musk believes in investing long-term, evident from his quest to Mars, so he believes in the long-term future of Bitcoin as well. But his tweets supporting Dogecoin have often alienated him from others in the business as Dogecoin was started as a joke. But now, it sits in the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, mainly due to Musk’s frequent tweets.
Let’s look at the timeline of the key Musk-Bitcoin moments in recent times:
- February 8: Tesla announced that it has bought $1.5 billion in BTC and announced that it would accept Bitcoin payments, contributing to the incredible rise in cryptocurrency prices in a matter of months.
- March 24: Musk revealed in a tweet that people can now buy Tesla with Bitcoin.
- April 14: Bitcoin reaches an all-time high of $64,863.10, as projected by CoinMarketCap.
- May 12: Musk tweets that Tesla wouldn’t accept Bitcoin payments due to environmental concerns, which was one of many factors that caused Bitcoin and the rest of the cryptocurrency portfolio to tumble.
- May 16: A misunderstanding arises from a Twitter conversation in which one user tweeted that he wouldn’t blame Musk if he dumped all his Bitcoin. Musk replied, “Indeed.” So, Bitcoin falls further on rumors that Musk would sell all his Bitcoin holdings.
- May 17: Musk reassured investors that Tesla would not sell its coins the next day. Quite a few cryptocurrency exchanges crashed in the following week. The major cryptocurrency houses could not handle the high volume of trade as some investors hurried to cash out while others tried to cash in the dip.
The Dogecoin Boom
If we observe the cryptocurrency Dogecoin, which started as an ‘altcoin’ to Bitcoin, the rise of the Shiba Inu-themed cryptocurrency has largely been attributed to two things: memes on the Internet and Elon Musk.
Dogecoin started as a joke; however, last year, the joke appears to have turned on those who didn’t take the meme cryptocurrency seriously. Elon Musk’s meme-cryptocurrency, a major part of his cryptocurrency portfolio that he wouldn’t stop tweeting about, crossed 10 cents for the 1st time and reached an all-time high in April 2021.
In yet another series of tweets, Musk explained the reason behind his ardent support for another meme token, Dogecoin. “Lots of people I talked to on the production lines at Tesla or building rockets at SpaceX own Doge, and they aren’t financial experts or Silicon Valley technologists. That’s why I decided to support Doge—it felt like the people’s crypto,” Musk said in a tweet.
Dogecoin investors (some, not all) have become bullish now that Musk has added validation to the original meme coin. The Doge bulls are out in full force and are already predicting that the Dogecoin price is headed to an all-time high. Just a few weeks ago, the Doge price rose 3% to $0.26 but got as high as $0.28 in a matter of days.
The Shiba Recession
No one knows if Musk meant it or not, but he gave some shade to Shiba Inu, the spin-off meme coin of Dogecoin. The Shiba Inu community is heavily fixated on the billionaire because when “Shiba Inu Hodler” (a Twitter account) asked Musk how much SHIB token he’s holding, Musk immediately replied, “None.”
The letdown also shocked some Shiba Inu coin holders considering that SpaceX boss and crypto enthusiast have been tweeting updates on his new Shiba Inu puppy, Floki. In response, SHIB, which rallied to double-digit growth and rose to a new record high, instantly turned negative.
All this keeping in mind that – Musk explained that he owns some Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin, which he bought out of curiosity, and Musk stressed that he does not “bet the farm on crypto.”
Let’s Wrap it up
Don’t be fooled; Musk is well aware of his influence on the cryptocurrency market. He has previously stated that it’s a good thing when prices rise, and he’s also joked about it and often predicted that these things will rule in the future.
“Fate loves irony,” he told celebrity news website TMZ, “and the most ironic outcome will be that the currency invented as a joke, in fact, becomes the real currency.”
Between his many tweets and comments, Musk had made it clear that he doesn’t own any of the two altcoins. He has said before that people should exercise caution when investing in crypto assets. Musk also hinted, don’t bet the farm on crypto! “True value lies in building products and providing services to fellow human beings, not money in any form, he further adds.”
But remember, just because the SpaceX founder, Musk, or any other executive or influencer tweets about a cryptocurrency, it doesn’t mean it’s valuable or worth investing in. Experts warn that feeding into social media hype will often lead you to lose money.
Experts view these types of currencies as risky, volatile, as well as speculative investments, and they warn you only to invest what you can afford to lose. That’s why investors should always do their research before deciding where to invest. Even the SEC warned in 2017 that it’s never a great idea to invest in something just because someone rich and famous says a product or service is worth it.
Now you know enough about Elon Musk’s Cryptocurrency Portfolio to make an investment decision.
For more on investing, see: When Opportunity Knocks
Best of luck, and keep investing!
