Bitcoin surges past $32,000 after Elon Musk says he owns the coin

Bitcoin surges past $32,000 after Elon Musk says he owns the coin

Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla Inc, reiterated his backing of Bitcoin at a conference Wednesday, saying he owns the token along with Dogecoin and Ethereum.

Bitcoin extended gains past $32,000, continuing a rebound after erasing most of its gains for the year. The latest leg up came in as Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey and Cathie Wood spoke during a panel on the future of Bitcoin.

The largest digital currency rose more than 8% to about $32,270 as of 2:27 p.m. in New York on Wednesday. Other cryptos advanced too, including Ether and Dogecoin, while the Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index was also in the green.

Musk, the chief executive of Tesla Inc., reiterated his backing of Bitcoin, saying he owns the token along with Dogecoin and Ethereum. He also said Space Exploration Tecnologies Corp. also owns Bitcoin, like Musk’s electric-car company.

The token bounced back after sliding below $30,000 earlier in the week, its first foray there since June.

“The fear in the market was that if Bitcoin breaks below the $30,000 mark, the price will move lower violently,” said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst with Ava Trade Ltd. “In reality, that is not what we have seen. The Bitcoin price has been stable, and we have not seen any panic selling.”

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have tumbled since mid-May, wiping some $1.3 trillion off their market value. Bitcoin has faced a range of obstacles, including stepped up regulatory scrutiny in China, Europe and the U.S. and concerns about the energy needed by the computers underpinning it. Investors have also generally become more cautious about speculative assets.

Bitcoin may still test the $25,000 support level in the coming weeks, Ava Trade’s Aslam said. A break above $32,000 would herald a stronger recovery, according to Steen Jakobsen, chief investment officer at Saxo Bank.

“Bitcoin and Ethereum did manage to pull a rally together after Bitcoin had dropped down through the key $30,000 area yesterday, but really needs to recover above $32,000 sustainably to dig itself out of a hole,” Jakobsen wrote in a note.

Bitcoin’s advance this year has shrunk to about 8% following a slide from an April record of almost $65,000. That compares with a 15% jump in the S&P 500 index in 2021.

Proponents argue the virtual currency offers an inflation hedge and will win wider institutional acceptance. Such narratives were always controversial and are now under even more question, though Bitcoin’s most ardent fans continue to predict big long-term returns.

“Regulatory and environmental concerns will likely keep Bitcoin heavy but improvements on both fronts should happen before the end of the year,” Edward Moya, senior market analyst for the Americas at Oanda, wrote in a note. He added institutional investors “are ready to place big long-term bets” if a plunge toward $20,000 is avoided.

Cryptocurrency prices today: Elon Musk’s statement boosts Bitcoin, other virtual coins

A day after recovering sharply from the week-long slump, cryptocurrencies improved their position further as the virtual coin market saw higher buying activity on Thursday.

However, the reason behind the sharp rise in valuation today is a statement from Tesla CEO Elon Musk that propelled the value of Bitcoin, the world’s most popular cryptocurrency. Most other virtual coins piggybacked on Bitcoin’s gains.

Elon Musk said Tesla would “most likely” resume accepting Bitcoin for payments at the B Word Conference. Soon after his comment, the value of Bitcoin rose. A few months ago, Musk said the electric carmaker would stop accepting Bitcoin for payments, citing its adverse environmental impact of mining the virtual coin.

Cryptocurrency highlights | Check yesterday’s prices

“I wanted a little bit more due diligence to confirm that the percentage of renewable energy usage is most likely at or above 50 per cent, and that there is a trend towards increasing that number, and if so Tesla would resume accepting Bitcoin,” he added.

Read | I might pump but I don’t dump - Elon Musk makes stance clear on Bitcoin

Musk also confirmed that he personally held Bitcoin and other cryptos including Ether and Dogecoin.

Bitcoin shares jumped as much as 9 per cent while Ether rose over 11 per cent. At 12:20 am on Thursday, Bitcoin was trading at over $32,000, up nearly 4 per cent. Ether also inched closer to $2,000, rising nearly 6 per cent.

All other popular cryptocurrencies rose including XRP, Cardano, Stellar, Dogecoin, Uniswap, Litecoin, Polkadot and Chainlink.

Commenting on the strong rebound, Edul Patel, CEO and Co-founder of Mudrex, a global algorithm based crypto trading platform, said, “The past 24 hours were a major trend reversal for the cryptocurrency spectrum.”

“After days of intense sell-off, the bulls have finally managed to overpower the bears. Bitcoin is hovering around the $32,000 mark now, which makes the investors pretty happy. The Altcoins had an even more wonderful rally.”

“ETH is inching closer towards the $2000 mark. Markets remained highly volatile. Over the next few days, we can expect the markets to settle down a bit.”

Here are the latest prices and trends of popular cryptocurrencies:

Cryptocurrency Price (US Dollar) 24-hour change Market cap (Billion) Volume (24 Hours) Bitcoin 32,012.09 3.68% $600.79 $27.03 billion Ether 1,984.69 5.76% $231.79 $24.92 billion Dogecoin 0.192449 6.50% $25.09 $4.17 billion Litecoin 118.26 5.35% $8.06 $1.67 billion XRP 0.585495 6.79% $58.58 $2.24 billion Cardano 1.17 2.47% $37.81 $1.89 billion

DISCLAIMER: The cryptocurrency prices have been updated as of 12:30 pm and will change as the day progresses. The list is intended to give a rough idea about popular cryptocurrency trends and be updated daily.

Bitcoin, ether, dogecoin prices surge after Elon Musk confirms he owns the cryptos

In cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin prices climbed back above $32,000 after trading below the crucial $30,000 level in the past two sessions as billionaire Elon Musk that his space exploration company SpaceX also owns the digital token and has no plans to sell it. Other cryptocurrencies like ether, dogecoin also gained after Tesla boss said that he personally owns the above three digital tokens, while Tesla and SpaceX both exclusively own Bitcoin.

As per CoinDesk, Bitcoin surged over 7% to $32,200 level whereas ether, the coin linked to Ethereum blockchain, was up to $1,980.8. Dogecoin, on the other, hand, was gained over 9% to $0.18. Other digital coins like XRP, Cardano, Uniswap also jumped in the range of 6-10% over the last 24 hours.

Speaking at “The B Word" conference hosted by the Crypto Council for Innovation, Musk discussed the outlook for Bitcoin with fellow backers Cathie Wood, head of Ark Investment Management and Jack Dorsey, chief executive officer of Twitter Inc. and Square Inc, reported Bloomberg.

“I would like to see Bitcoin succeed," Musk said. “If the price of Bitcoin goes down, I lose money. I might pump but don’t dump." Musk said that Tesla would most likely resume accepting Bitcoin for purchases once mining becomes less environmentally taxing.

“It looks like Bitcoin is shifting more toward renewables," Musk said. “I would want to do a little bit more diligence to confirm the percentage of renewable energy usage is at or above 50%."

Since mid-May, Bitcoin and other cryptos have tumbled, wiping some $1.3 trillion off their market value. Bitcoin has faced a range of obstacles, including stepped up regulatory scrutiny in China, Europe and the U.S. and concerns about the energy needed by the computers underpinning it. Bitcoin’s advance this year has shrunk to about 8% following a slide from an April record of almost $65,000.

(With inputs from agencies)

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