The billionaire's presence certainly has been felt in the crypto world — but Musk remains defensive of his Twitter habits.
Elon Musk has been named TIME magazine's person of the year.
In an article setting out its decision, the Tesla CEO was described as a man who can move markets with "a flick of his finger" — a billionaire with an "army of devotees" who hang on his every utterance. He even live-tweets his poops.
TIME notes that he's now a player in everything from robotic technology to solar energy — and yes, the world of cryptocurrencies.
That certainly is true. Musk caused Bitcoin to spike in February when he announced that Tesla had purchased $1.5 billion in BTC to hold in reserve — and that the electric vehicle maker would accept it as a payment method.
But Musk was also responsible for some pretty dramatic pullbacks. BTC slumped after he tweeted that its price seemed "too high." And an even worse crash happened when Tesla abandoned BTC as a payment method over environmental concerns.
Very quickly, the 50-year-old's standing in the crypto community changed — from a hero to a villain.
All of this comes before we've discussed his passion for Dogecoin, with the entrepreneur playing an instrumental role in the memecoin's surge in 2021.
This culminated with an appearance as host on Saturday Night Live in May.
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An Interesting Perspective
Musk was interviewed by TIME to coincide with this honor — and during the conversation, he expressed skepticism that cryptocurrencies will one day replace the U.S. dollar.
But perhaps the most enlightening exchange concerned his Twitter habits, which have landed him in hot water with regulators in the past. Musk argues:
"Markets move themselves all the time, based on nothing as far as I can tell. So the statements that I make, are they materially different from random movements of the stock that might happen anyway? I don’t think so."
