The shockwaves continue to reverberate on social media from Elon Musk’s announcement late Wednesday night that Tesla would no longer accept Bitcoin due to energy concerns, but with the price holding strong at $50,000 the big question now is: does anyone else really care? Has the cryptocurrency industry outgrown the random warblings of an unpredictable and easily-bored billionaire?
The immediate aftermath of Musk’s meltdown saw Bitcoin’s sharpest drop for 4 months, falling over 13% in a day. However, things seem to have settled quickly and it appears support at $50,000 is holding strong. The leading cryptocurrency by market cap is currently trading at $50,039.48, down 1.74% over the last 24 hours.
While Musk’s various statements have given Bitcoin a couple of timely boosts on its way up, experts seem unshaken by the revelations and it seems the same may not be true in the other direction. Bloomberg Intelligence commodity strategist Mike McGlone, for one, wrote on Thursday that: “Elon Musk saying Tesla is suspending purchases using bitcoin doesn’t shake our thesis that the crypto is in early price discovery days on its way to becoming the global digital reserve asset in a world of accelerating digitalization and electrification.”