Bitcoin price bounces as Elon Musk redeems himself

Musk was speaking at The B-Word conference, an online virtual conference that was designed to “correct the mainstream narrative” around Bitcoin and promote its acceptance, use and adoption by institutions.

Musk appeared on a panel with other speakers Jack Dorsey, CEO of Square and co-founder of Twitter, and Cathie Wood, CEO of Ark Invest. The panel was moderated by Square Crypto’s Steve Lee.

Musk had become a controversial figure in the crypto industry, and his welcoming comments today came as a relief, a sentiment that was quickly reflected in the markets with Bitcoin rebounding to $31,900 after dipping below $30,000 to start the week. Ethereum bounced sharply to above $1900, a jump of 10% overnight.

Earlier in the year, Musk was one of the triggers for the crypto market’s price slide. On May 13, Tesla suspended the use of Bitcoin to purchase its vehicles, with Musk citing concerns about the increasing use of fossil fuel for Bitcoin mining. Musk said Tesla would resume accepting Bitcoin for payments when Bitcoin mining achieved a figure of 50% for renewable energy.

Following the recent shutdown of the majority of the mining operations in China, Bitcoin’s trend towards a clean energy future has accelerated faster than expected, as Musk acknowledged today.

“It looks like Bitcoin is shifting a lot more towards renewables and a bunch of the heavy duty coal plants that were unequivocally being used have been shut down, especially in China. I want to do a little more diligence to confirm that the percentage of renewable energy usage is most likely at or above 50% and that there is a trend towards increasing that number. If so, Tesla will resume accepting Bitcoin,” he said.

Musk also revealed that he personally owns Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin, and that both Tesla and SpaceX own Bitcoin. Musk said the only public stock he owns is Tesla, and that the only "three meaningful assets" he owns outside of company stock is Bitcoin, Ether and Dogecoin, and that he owns "much more Bitcoin than Ether or Doge."

Musk also appeared to admit that he understands that his tweets do move the markets, but that he personally doesn’t profit from these moves.

“If the price of Bitcoin goes down I lose money. I might pump but I don’t dump,” said Musk. “I definitely do not believe in getting the price high and selling or anything like that. I would like to see Bitcoin succeed.”

Finally, Musk revealed that he has asked his engineering teams at SpaceX and Tesla to investigate the viability of producing a space heater that mines cryptocurrency.