Author: Wenser, Odaily Star Daily
On July 22nd, Musk changed his profile picture to a laser eye account in response to a request from X platform user @Chriswinig.
Due to the existence of the Bitcoin meme #LaserRayUntil100K (which means that the laser eye avatar will be maintained until the price of Bitcoin exceeds $100,000), this move was seen as Musk's once again open support for the cryptocurrency industry (although he has since changed back to his original profile picture).
For a time, Musk once again became the "focus of cryptocurrency," and it has been 3 years since he last changed his profile picture to the "laser eye girl." Odaily Star Daily will summarize Musk's behavior and views on the cryptocurrency industry in this article, providing readers with a more comprehensive understanding of the "tech madman" behind SpaceX and Tesla from various perspectives.
Conceptual Origins: Starting with ETH
In 2018, after experiencing a surge in prices at the beginning of the year, ETH gradually fell from a price of $1410 to less than $300 by the end of August, testing the faith of industry insiders in ETH and cryptocurrencies for the first time.
Although Musk's attitude towards cryptocurrencies was ambiguous and often mocking, he had indeed paid high attention to cryptocurrencies including ETH.
On August 29th, Musk tweeted, "At this point, even if it is a scam, I want ETH." Despite the continued decline in ETH prices, even falling below $100 by the end of the year, Musk's "friendly attitude" towards cryptocurrencies did help to a certain extent in promoting the education and popularization of cryptocurrencies including ETH and BTC.
It is worth mentioning that at that time, whether Tesla supported cryptocurrency payments and whether Musk used cryptocurrency in the process of privatizing Tesla were also topics of much discussion on the internet, and the SEC even sued him for making "false and misleading statements."
ETH price on August 29, 2018
On April 30, 2019, after 7 months, Musk tweeted again: "Ethereum." Just when people thought he was "openly bullish" to express his optimism about ETH, 7 minutes later, he added in the comments section: "jk" (usually considered an abbreviation for Joke). It was only then that people realized he was joking about Ethereum.
Later that day, he tweeted again asking, "What should be developed on Ethereum?" The two highly praised responses in the comments section also represented the different attitudes towards cryptocurrencies at that time: one view was that it was uncertain whether Ethereum was a suitable platform, but perhaps Tesla's micro-payment economy might be an interesting sub-project; the other view was that the only purpose of Ethereum was to make the founders rich overnight under the guise of decentralization.
Musk's tweets and highly praised comments
These views may have also influenced Musk's "cryptocurrency view" to a certain extent at that time, but this changed quickly with the spread of DOGE.
Conceptual Shift: The Birth of the DOGE Godfather
On April 1, 2019, April Fools' Day, Musk was elected as the CEO of Dogecoin by Dogecoin Twitter fans, and he then changed his Twitter profile to "former CEO of Dogecoin." Musk's inexplicable connection with DOGE began.
On April 3, Musk commented on an article about Bitcoin, saying, "The value of DOGE may be different." But the next day, on April 4, he deleted his profile. It can be said that Musk has a precedent for changing his profile and avatar.
In July 2020, Musk once again "openly bullish" on DOGE—when asked about Bitcoin, Musk replied on Twitter that he "only buys Dogecoin" and posted an image of a "Dogecoin dust storm" sweeping through a city called "the global financial system," saying "this is inevitable." DOGE once surged over 20% to over 0.0036 USDT.
Musk's tweet with image
In December 2020, Musk mentioned DOGE again on Twitter and stated that Bitcoin is almost as ridiculous as fiat currency. As a result of this news, DOGE's 24-hour increase exceeded 12%.
After entering 2021, Musk's frequency of mentioning DOGE increased, and the "intimacy" between the two was about to reach its peak, and Musk himself was about to "make a decision."
From January to March 2021, Musk mentioned DOGE several times and expressed his appreciation for it, calling it the "people's cryptocurrency" and the "most interesting cryptocurrency," and expressing support for Coinbase to list DOGE. In April, after Musk posted a picture of "dogs barking at the moon," DOGE's intraday increase once exceeded 200%, and it skyrocketed fivefold in the following five days. Just when people thought Musk had firmly secured the position of "DOGE Godfather" and would lead DOGE "TO DA MOON" (to the moon), Musk finally "couldn't hold on any longer."
Musk XDOGE image NFT created by Beeple
On May 9, on the American variety show "Saturday Night Live," Musk first said, "DOGE is the currency of the future, an unstoppable financial tool that will take over the world. DOGE is as real as the US dollar." But under the host's almost boring repeated questioning, Musk finally admitted that Dogecoin is a "hustle."
Although Musk later highly affirmed the role of DOGE in transaction costs and convenient payments, even stating that it "may be more efficient than the Lightning Network," and announced in January 2022 that some goods in Tesla's US online store would accept DOGE as a payment option, the relationship between the two was far from what it used to be.
Since then, Musk's view on cryptocurrencies has become more rational, and of course, it can also be seen as a kind of "maturity."
Conceptual Upgrade: Supporter of Cryptocurrencies
If Musk's attitude towards cryptocurrencies before 2021 was teasing, joking, and even mocking (he once called "cryptocurrency" his "safe word"), after 2021, his attitude towards cryptocurrencies undoubtedly underwent a significant "upgrade"—this was not only influenced by DOGE but also by more thinking from the perspective of the "currency system."
In February 2021, when the price of Bitcoin was less than $39,000, Tesla first bought BTC, spending a total of $1.5 billion. At that time, Musk believed that Bitcoin would soon be widely accepted by traditional financial professionals and said, "I am a supporter of Bitcoin. I should have bought Bitcoin 8 years ago and regret not joining this feast earlier."
In early May 2021, before appearing on the show, Musk had retweeted a video "Musk says Dogecoin could become the currency of the future" and wrote, "Cryptocurrency has great potential, but please invest with caution!" That month, Musk stated that cryptocurrency is a means to combat currency devaluation and government capital control; later, when asked by a netizen how he viewed those who were angry with him because of cryptocurrency, Musk responded, "The real battle is between fiat and cryptocurrency. Overall, I support the latter."
In September 2021, he stated at an offline event, "The US government should avoid trying to regulate the cryptocurrency market."
In December 2021, while still serving as YC President, Sam Altman highly praised the investment returns of Web3 in a tweet, Musk commented, "Web3 sounds like bullshit." He then made several tweets mocking the concept of Web3, stating that "current Web3 sounds more like a marketing buzzword than reality" and suggesting that "NFT is another form of the dollar."
As 2022 began, Musk's main focus became "acquiring Twitter," but cryptocurrency remained a key area of his attention. In March, he replied to a comment from a netizen, stating, "I still hold and will not sell my Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Dogecoin."
After a series of negotiations, acquisitions and counter-acquisitions, debates over freedom of speech, lawsuits, and counter-lawsuits, Musk spent $44 billion in October to officially complete the acquisition and privatization of Twitter, merging it into the existing X company, and even renaming Twitter as the "X" platform. This news led to a temporary surge in cryptocurrencies such as DOGE and SHIB. It is worth mentioning that this acquisition also received support from the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, a fact later confirmed by founder CZ.
In addition, in May 2022, Musk briefly changed his Twitter profile picture to an image of a BAYC NFT, then changed it back, stating that "it is replaceable." This news led to a drop in the price of the APE token, once again highlighting his significant influence in the cryptocurrency field.
At this point, Musk owns X (formerly Twitter), Tesla, SpaceX, and other internet companies, new energy car companies, and rocket spacecraft companies, and his influence on the cryptocurrency industry remains "enormous."
Conclusion: A participant in the cryptocurrency wave, not a bystander
In 2023, Tesla CFO Zach Kirkhorn revealed that the company sold most of its Bitcoin last year. According to SEC documents, Tesla made approximately $192 million in profits from cryptocurrency investments.
In May, Musk released an NFT project image of Milady on Twitter, driving the project's floor price to surge nearly 100% (this was also mentioned in a previous article about the founder of Milady, Charlotte Fang, in "NFT 'Cult' Milady Founder Charlotte Fang's Unknown Story" in April 2023).
In October, Tesla's financial report showed that the company did not buy or sell any Bitcoin in Q3 2023, marking five consecutive quarters without any trading activity. As of September 30, Tesla held approximately 9,720 Bitcoins, valued at approximately $275.6 million.
This year, Musk's main focus has returned to the meme coin field, including:
In January, Musk changed the X account profile to "(CTO) Chief Troll Officer," and as a result, a meme coin called TROLL, deployed in April 2023, eventually surged to a market value exceeding $85 million.
In February, Musk tweeted "I love puppies," and the subsequent meme project PUPPIES achieved a surge of over 1100% within two weeks in April, with a market value of approximately $30 million.
In March, Musk replied to a tweet from the creator of the word "meme," Richard Dawkins, which also led to a rise in some tokens in the meme sector. In addition, on the 18th, he posted a picture of a hat-wearing dog on the X platform to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. As a result, the related meme coin WIF surged over 30% in 24 hours.
In May, Musk posted a photo on the X platform paying tribute to DOGE, leading to a short-term breakthrough of DOGE to 0.17 USDT, with a 24-hour increase of 8.66%. On May 30, there were market reports that Musk had provided some cryptocurrency advice to Trump, and their relationship quickly warmed up.
As it is a presidential election year in the United States, Musk has also frequently expressed his views on this, openly supporting Trump, and even "changing his profile picture to celebrate" after Democratic presidential candidate Biden withdrew from the race.
In addition, according to Tesla's latest quarterly report for the second quarter of 2024, the company did not buy or sell any Bitcoin in the second quarter of this year, marking the eighth consecutive quarter without any trading activity. Tesla currently holds approximately 9,720 Bitcoins, with a purchase cost of approximately $337 million, which has now appreciated to $624 million.
Looking back over the past few years of his love-hate relationship with cryptocurrencies, we can see that despite not being directly involved in this industry, Musk still shows great enthusiasm and a keen interest in it. In addition, he holds opposing views on excessive government regulation and high capital control. To some extent, he can also be seen as a "participant with a crypto spirit."
After all, as he said, "I never said people should invest in cryptocurrencies," but "I hope cryptocurrencies can improve the efficiency of the core currency."
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