[Bitcoin Now] Musk's Reckless Remarks Cause Sharp Drop to 52 Million Won Range

CEO Musk's Continuous Criticism: "Bitcoin is a Centralized Cryptocurrency"
Also Hints at Selling All Bitcoin Holdings

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Gong Byung-sun] The leading cryptocurrency Bitcoin has plummeted to the 52 million KRW range. It appears that Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, has negatively impacted the market with his continuous criticism and hints at selling Bitcoin.

According to the domestic cryptocurrency exchange Upbit, as of 2:07 PM on the 17th, Bitcoin recorded 52.9 million KRW, down 8.22% from the previous day. Just a week ago, it was in the 70 million KRW range, but it has been falling for four consecutive days since the 14th, even dropping to 51.38 million KRW on this day.

Musk's remarks acted as a negative factor. On the 16th (local time), he tweeted, "Bitcoin is a highly centralized cryptocurrency because it is controlled by some large mining companies," and pointed out, "When Bitcoin mining sites located in China were flooded, the amount of hash used for network computation decreased by nearly 35%." According to the U.S. economic magazine Fortune on the 20th of last month, Bitcoin mining sites near power plants in Xinjiang, China, were submerged due to flooding.

Musk also made statements that could be interpreted as having sold all the Bitcoin he held. On the 16th, a Twitter user said, "Cryptocurrency market participants will deeply regret next quarter that Tesla sold all its Bitcoin," adding, "People's hatred toward Musk CEO is growing, but I will not blame him." Musk replied to that tweet with "Really." It is unclear whether he agreed to having sold all his Bitcoin or was responding to the growing public hatred, but cryptocurrency market participants took it as a sale. Earlier, on the 27th of last month, Tesla announced in its Q1 earnings report that it had sold about $272 million (approximately 308.5 billion KRW) worth of Bitcoin this year.

Meanwhile, there is an analysis that Musk's negative stance on Bitcoin could have a positive long-term effect on the cryptocurrency market. On the 15th, the British economic media Financial Times (FT) argued that Musk's remarks could ultimately provide an opportunity for altcoins, which consume less electricity than Bitcoin, to become mainstream. FT explained, "The millennial generation (born from the early 1980s to the early 2000s), which invests the most in cryptocurrencies, is most sensitive to global warming," and noted, "They are paying attention to the fact that Bitcoin mining and transactions between wallets harm the environment."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.