{"id":493325,"date":"2021-05-25T11:55:56","date_gmt":"2021-05-25T09:55:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=493325"},"modified":"2021-05-25T11:55:56","modified_gmt":"2021-05-25T09:55:56","slug":"wild-swings-based-on-elon-musk-tweets-takes-away-crypto-legitimacy-analyst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/banking\/493325\/wild-swings-based-on-elon-musk-tweets-takes-away-crypto-legitimacy-analyst\/","title":{"rendered":"Wild swings based on Elon Musk tweets takes away crypto legitimacy &#8211; analyst"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Bitcoin held gains Tuesday after Elon Musk\u2019s effort to bolster the token\u2019s green credentials stoked a rally, extending a bout of marked volatility in the wake of last week\u2019s crypto rout.<\/p>\n<p>The largest digital currency was little changed at $38,800 as of 7:35 a.m. in London, following a 16% overnight jump. The wider Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index and tokens including Ether were steady.<\/p>\n<p>Musk took to Twitter to signal support for an apparent effort by Bitcoin miners to make their operations more environmentally friendly. The billionaire has roiled the token\u2019s price this month, triggering a selloff by criticizing its energy profile and suspending Bitcoin payments to Tesla Inc.<\/p>\n<p>Heightened regulatory rhetoric on cryptocurrencies from China also pressured the sector.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Spoke with North American Bitcoin miners. They committed to publish current &amp; planned renewable usage &amp; to ask miners WW to do so. Potentially promising.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/elonmusk\/status\/1396914548167233537?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 24, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf the market continues to see wild swings based on Elon Musk tweets, it\u2019s going to be a big set back for this asset class,\u201d said Matt Maley, chief market strategist for Miller Tabak + Co. \u201cThe fact that it sees such wild swings to the tweets from one person analyst of the asset class.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pledges to make the industry more green have picked up since Musk\u2019s criticisms. Several miners joined the Crypto Climate Accord, a private-sector initiative to decarbonize the crypto industry by 2030.<\/p>\n<p>Musk and Michael Saylor, another long-time Bitcoin booster, tweeted Monday that they had held a call with major North American miners, including Michael Novogratz\u2019s Galaxy Digital and publicly traded Hut 8 Mining Corp, to discuss \u201cenergy usage transparency.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Bitcoin.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-493329\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Bitcoin.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"814\" height=\"457\" srcset=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Bitcoin.jpg 814w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Bitcoin-300x168.jpg 300w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Bitcoin-768x431.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 814px) 100vw, 814px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Largest token has begun climbing again after selloff<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Saylor said the group agreed to form the Bitcoin Mining Council \u201cto standardize energy reporting.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Musk and Saylor\u2019s initiative to make Bitcoin \u201c\u2018greener\u2019 bodes well for ESG narrative and institutional adoption,\u201d David Grider, strategist at Fundstrat Global Advisors LLC, wrote in a note.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, it will take years for many of the largest miners to recalibrate where they source their energy.<\/p>\n<p>Bitcoin\u2019s heavy use of power fired by polluting fossil fuels is a long-standing problem. Miners use hundreds of computers that run around the clock to verify Bitcoin transactions in exchange for new coins.<\/p>\n<p>Despite that, Musk in February plowed $1.5 billion of Tesla\u2019s corporate cash into the token and said the electric-vehicle maker would accept it as payment for vehicles, before rescinding the latter decision earlier in May.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nursing Losses<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>While the billionaire has since said he strongly believes in cryptocurrencies as long as they don\u2019t drive a massive increase in fossil fuel use, digital tokens are still nursing losses from his spate of comments.<\/p>\n<p>The market value of more than 7,000 coins tracked by CoinGecko is down more than $800 billion from a May peak of some $2.6 trillion. Bitcoin is about $25,000 off its mid-April record.<\/p>\n<p>A measure of implied volatility on Bitcoin comparable to the U.S. equity market\u2019s VIX indicator sits at 129, higher than the stock version has ever reached in 30 years.<\/p>\n<p>Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard noted at the Consensus conference, one of the crypto industry\u2019s biggest gatherings, that a big issue for central banks with regard to a digital currency is the impact on the financial system.<\/p>\n<p>The conference runs for most of this week and features some well-known crypto bulls, who are expected to hype the industry, potentially causing more turbulence in prices.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/banking\/469324\/musk-defends-tesla-bitcoin-move-says-token-less-dumb-than-cash\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Musk defends Tesla Bitcoin move, says token less dumb than cash<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bitcoin held gains Tuesday after Elon Musk\u2019s effort to bolster the token\u2019s green credentials stoked a rally, extending a bout of marked volatility in the wake of last week\u2019s crypto rout.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":302138,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[961],"tags":[5537,26],"class_list":["post-493325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banking","tag-bitcoin","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493325"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":493333,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493325\/revisions\/493333"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}