Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk., announced that the company would no longer accept Bitcoin payments. The news caused another crypto market crash, but bold traders are buying in the dip.
After Elon Musk tweeted about the suspension of Bitcoin as a payment method for Tesla, the crypto community on Twitter went frenzy as many accused the billionaire of a ‘pump and dump’ strategy. According to the tweet, Tesla was parting ways with BTC payments because of the high amounts of fossil fuels, especially coal, used in Bitcoin mining and other BTC transactions.
Pump & Dump?
Three hours after Musk’s tweet, Bitcoin dipped by 15%, crashing from $55,000 to $46,600. Tesla’s decision to accept BTC payments at the beginning of the year was one of the main reasons behind Bitcoin’s bullish rally to an ATH of $65,000.
The latest development has led to many frustrated traders accusing the billionaire of manipulating the market through a ‘pump & dump’ strategy.
One of Musk’s greatest critics, Dave Portnoy, called for an ‘Emergency Press Conference’ stating that Musk’s move would negatively affect Bitcoin prices.
[Musk] has been pulling the levers like the Wizard of Oz on crypto, and everyone’s following his every move — he’s sending Dogecoin up, he’s sending Bitcoin down, this is bullshit […] Elon, you have responsibility when one second you say to buy something, and the next second you don’t – that’s playing with people’s futures and their fortunes.” He said
Portnoy added, “How can you live with yourself?”
Even though Tesla’s decision was disappointing, Adrian Przelozny, CEO of Independent Reserve, remained optimistic that Bitcoin’s prices would recover.
“However, we’ve seen Bitcoin receive all sorts of bad press throughout the years, such as governments banning its usage. And despite that, Bitcoin has always recovered and grown to new highs,” Przelozny said.
Buying into the dip
While others are criticizing Musk’s move, others are using the opportunity to buy into the dip. According to William Clemente, a crypto enthusiast, the dip “will be looked at as one of the greatest bull market buy opportunities in BTC history.”
Some also added that since Musk did not sell his personal BTC holdings, he was still a long-term speculator, creating optimism that BTC’s value will recover. After the dip to around $47,000, BTC has recovered and was trading at around $50,500 at the time of writing.
Mira Christanto from Messari criticized Musk’s decision not to buy into BTC because of fossil fuels. Christanto argued that Bitcoin was shifting into renewable sources of energy.