Bitcoin experienced another wave of support as Tesla and SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk, openly showed his optimism about the cryptocurrency after adding it to his Twitter Bio. The bitcoin-related addition quickly sparked a wave of buying pressure for Bitcoin, which resulted in a 14% price pump in just 30 minutes. However, Musk is far from over with his support for Bitcoin.
In a Clubhouse conference on Feb. 1, Musk, joined by experts from Andreessen Horowitz and other prominent investors, noted that Bitcoin (BTC) is on the verge of seeing broader acceptance.
"I do think Bitcoin is a good thing. I am late to the party but I am a supporter of Bitcoin," Musk noted, adding that he expects larger adoption in the traditional finance world.
Musk’s opinion was joined by other industry executives, which were generally positive about Musk’s comment on Bitcoin. For example, James Todar, a partner at Greymatter Capital stated that “one of the most forward-thinking inventors of our age missed bitcoin.”
“On Clubhouse just now, Elon Musk tells of a friend who gave him a cake in the shape of a bitcoin back in 2013,” Todar emphasized.
Todar’s thoughts were relayed by a partner at 10T Holdings Dan Tapiero. He noted that Musk being a supporter of Bitcoin “feels good.”
"Somehow it feels good that Elon Musk, a Bitcoin supporter near my age is the richest man in the world. Was getting tired of Gates/Buffett/Bezos...older guys in old tech or no tech and not bitcoiners. With an iconoclast and a visionary as an example maybe there is hope for Gen Z." Tapiero wrote on Twitter.
Meanwhile, other investors like billionaire Tim Draper asked Musk on several occasions to add Bitcoin as a payment method in his businesses like Tesla. If Musk does so, Bitcoin would receive a massive boost in global awareness.
However, Bitcoin’s price reacted differently than expected. The price of the largest crypto to date retreated 3% amid Musk commenting on his support for Bitcoin. Experts are pointing out two possible scenarios for the price slump – one of them being the anticipation of Musk to disclose his Bitcoin holdings.
Source: TradingView
Also, the market may have responded with the “sell-the-news" tactic, which may be the cause for the price pullback.
Bitcoin’s online community presence, on the other hand, exploded with 200,000 new members joining Bitcoin’s Reddit page. Currently, the Bitcoin page on Reddit has 2,225,958 members. In contrast, during the 2017 bull run, the sub-Reddit received a gradual follower increase, while the latest growth saw the page starting at 1,982,681 subscribers on January 26 only to hit 2 million and over five days later.
r/Bitcoin's subscriber behavior closely follows another channel – r/WallStreetBets, which made the traditional finance world go into a frenzy after combating the short positions, opened by hedge funds. The saga continued as hedge funds and brokers accused the GameStop community of market manipulation, which drew the attention of U.S. regulators and large news outlets like the Wall Street Journal and New York Times.