Elon Musk Discusses Bitcoin Approach in Debate With Jack Dorsey

Elon Musk is still a Bitcoin supporter. Christophe Gateau/picture alliance via Getty Images

Elon Musk was recently voted “the most hated person in crypto” on Twitter for driving wild price swings in Bitcoin with his infamously unpredictable tweets. But the billionaire, who reportedly owns a large portfolio of cryptocurrencies, says volatility hurts him just as much as any other Bitcoin holder. “I might pump but I don’t dump,” he said during an online event Wednesday.

Speaking on a panel titled “Bitcoin As A Tool For Economic Empowerment” during The ₿ Word Conference along with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Cathie Wood, founder of the investment management firm ARK Invest, Musk revealed that the only major investments he owns outside of Tesla and SpaceX are Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin.

“If the price of Bitcoin goes down, I lose money,” Musk said. “I might pump but I don’t dump. I definitely do not believe in getting the price high and selling or anything like that. I would like to see Bitcoin succeed.”

Musk added that he owns much more Bitcoin than either Ethereum or Dogecoin and that both of his companies, Tesla and SpaceX, also own Bitcoin.

Tesla announced in March that in would begin accepting Bitcoin as a payment method for its electric vehicles in the U.S. The announcement was seen as a huge token of approval to cryptocurrency and led to a surge in Bitcoin’s dollar value. However, two months later, Musk had a sudden change of heart and decided that Tesla would no longer accept Bitcoin as payment because crypto transactions, or mining, consume too much energy and don’t fit in with his mission to “accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.”

“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,” he said in a statement through Tesla at the time.

During Wednesday’s talk, Musk said Tesla will “most likely” resume accepting Bitcoin when mining activities are green enough. While acknowledging that it won’t happen overnight due to the natural constraint of renewable energy sources like solar and wind, he said it’s possible to power crypto mining 24/7 with a combination of solar, wind and stationary power.

“As long as there is a conscious effort to move Bitcoin miners toward renewables, then Tesla can support that,” he added.

Wednesday’s virtual panel discussion was moderated by Steve Lee, the lead for Square Crypto, an initiative linked to Dorsey’s digital payment company, Square. The conference was hosted by the Crypto Council for Innovation.