Bitcoin less dumb form of liquidity than cash, says Tesla CEO Elon Musk

by · Business Today

Musk, who never minces his words on social media, has been vocal about his passion for Bitcoin cryptocurrency.

Highlights

  • Tesla CEO Elon Musk feels Bitcoin is “less dumb” than cash.
  • Musk had recently invested $1.5 billion in cryptocurrency.
  • Musk had warned users to not spend all their life savings on cryptocurrency in a separate video.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk feels Bitcoin is "less dumb" than cash. Musk, who never minces his words on social media, has been vocal about his passion for Bitcoin cryptocurrency. He had recently invested $1.5 billion in cryptocurrency and now we have why feels calls "cash" dumb in comparison to bitcoin.

Replying to an interview of Binance CEO Changpeng Zhaoposted by Bloomberg TV, Musk tweeted, "Tesla's action is not directly reflective of my opinion. Having some Bitcoin, which is simply a less dumb form of liquidity than cash, is adventurous enough for an S&P500 company.

Binance is the largest cryptocurrency platform. During the interview, Zhao said that although Musk favors Dogecoin, Tesla invested $1.5 billion in Bitcoin and not Dogecoin.

To which he replied, "To be clear, I am *not* an investor, I am an engineer. I don't even own any publicly traded stock besides Tesla. However, when fiat currency has a negative real interest, only a fool wouldn't look elsewhere. Bitcoin is almost as bs as fiat money. The keyword is "almost.

On February 8, Tesla's 10-K report confirmed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that Tesla has invested $1.5 billion in the Bitcoin cryptocurrency. "We invested an aggregate $1.50 billion in bitcoin under this policy and may acquire and hold digital assets from time to time or long-term. Moreover, we expect to begin accepting bitcoin as a form of payment for our products in the near future, subject to applicable laws and initially on a limited basis, which we may or may not liquidate upon receipt," the company said in the report.
However, Musk had warned users to not spend all their life savings on cryptocurrency in a separate video.

Interestingly, the video was shot a day before Tesla announced its bitcoin investment. "People should not invest their life savings in cryptocurrency, to be clear -- that's unwise," Musk said. "There's a good chance that crypto is the future currency of Earth, and it's like which one's it going to be? Maybe it'll be multiple. It should be considered speculation at this point. So don't go too far with the crypto speculation front," Musk added.

On a related note, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in collaboration with rapper Jay Z had announced that they are setting up a Bitcoin trust in India. He revealed that he and Jay are giving 500 BTC ( approximately $23.7 million) to a new endowment to fund Bitcoin development focused on teams in India and Africa.