Bitcoin price soars as market reacts to Tesla purchase
The price of Bitcoin hit a new all-time high on Monday as investors reacted to news that Tesla had purchased $1.5 million of the cryptocurrency, and that the car maker planned to accept it as payment. Shortly after the news broke, Bitcoin crossed the $44,000 mark for the first time. The milestone comes on the
Bitcoin price soars as market reacts to Tesla purchase
The price of Bitcoin hit a new all-time high on Monday as investors reacted to news that Tesla had purchased $1.5 million of the cryptocurrency, and that the car maker planned to accept it as payment.
Shortly after the news broke, Bitcoin crossed the $44,000 mark for the first time. The milestone comes on the heels of an extraordinary run for Bitcoin, which has doubled in price since December, and has recovered from a tumble in late January that saw it briefly fall to around $30,000.
Bitcoin surges to a record after Tesla says it's invested $1.5 billion and will start to accept BTC as payment. https://t.co/5McipWOi6S pic.twitter.com/94NIPEcpZw
— Tim Stenovec (on parental leave) (@timsteno) February 8, 2021
The Tesla news also set off a flurry of reactions on Twitter as market watchers tried to digest the implications of one of the world’s most valuable companies betting on Bitcoin—and of its charismatic CEO Elon Musk embracing the crypto industry.
Katie Haun, a crypto expert at VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, predicted Tesla’s move could be just the beginning as more firms follow its example, and that of fintech giant Square, by adding Bitcoin to their balance sheet:
Big news for the crypto space this morning with @Tesla buying BTC for part of its treasury. What company or companies do you think will be next? https://t.co/rski67y2LH
— Kathryn Haun (@katie_haun) February 8, 2021
Meanwhile, banking giant RBC also raised such a possibility—suggesting that the world’s most valuable company could soon make a big foray into crypto:
"If [Apple] decides to enter into the crypto exchange business (multi-billion dollar industry) we think the firm could immediately gain market share and disrupt the industry (while simultaneously making the USA a leader in crypto for the next 10-20 years)."—@RBC's latest on Apple pic.twitter.com/yijfBC8Ju0
— RobertHackett.eth (@rhhackett) February 8, 2021
Others on Twitter noted that Monday’s news came as the culmination of Musk dropping weeks of cryptic hints that he was poised to embrace cryptocurrency—hints that included references to a novelty currency called DogeCoin whose value Musk helped inflate:
In retrospect, it was inevitablehttps://t.co/X5OWK4DRFK https://t.co/RvIbvx9u4v
— Hunter Horsley (@HHorsley) February 8, 2021
Musk spent the last few weeks sending public traffic away from Bitcoin and into a crypto that has absolutely zero value driving the price of Bitcoin down. Musk made $200,000,000 off his Bitcoin deposit just this hour. Elon hates you guys. The sooner you realize that the better. https://t.co/tosgXKxorS
— Ethan Embry (@EmbryEthan) February 8, 2021
Main Image: The Motley Fool
