According to Magda Wierzycka, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX used his influence on social media to raise the price of Bitcoin after its purchase by the automaker.
The South African billionaire and founder of Sygnia Magda Wierzycka in The Money Show podcast accused the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX Elon Musk of manipulating the cryptocurrency market for his own benefit. With this, she explained the high volatility of digital assets, which has been observed in recent months.
According to Wierzycka, if Musk did the same with a company whose shares are traded on the stock market, then the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) would subject him to harsh sanctions. Having bought $ 1.5 billion worth of bitcoin for Tesla, Musk used his influence on social media to raise the price of the asset, Wierzycka said.
Elon Musk already had problems with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in 2018. Then the entrepreneur announced on Twitter that he plans to buy back Tesla shares at $ 420 apiece. This publication provoked a rise in securities by 11%. In the course of lengthy legal proceedings, the entrepreneur was ordered to leave the post of chairman of the board of directors of the automaker for three years and pay a fine of $ 20 million.
Elon Musk does not hide his negative attitude towards the SEC. He has repeatedly deciphered the agency’s acronym as “Short seller Enrichment Commission”.
In 2021, Elon Musk has repeatedly spoken out about cryptocurrencies. Rumors that Tesla is selling its bitcoin could have caused the coin’s quotes to fall to a local minimum of $ 30,000, which occurred on May 19. Then the cost of the main cryptocurrency per day decreased by a third. Musk later denied these rumors and stated that the automaker did not sell a single coin.
Tesla announced a $ 1.5 billion investment in Bitcoin in early February. Already at the end of March, the automaker sold $ 272 million worth of bitcoin with a profit of $ 101 million. In the same month, the company added the ability to pay for its products with bitcoin.
In May, the company temporarily stopped selling electric vehicles for cryptocurrency due to the non-environmentally friendly way of obtaining them. The head of Tesla Elon Musk said on Twitter that the company cannot afford to harm the environment, so it will not accept cryptocurrency as payment until it starts mining with renewable energy sources.