Bitcoin price tumbles AGAIN after Elon Musk’s Twitter spat with Kraken CEO Jesse Powell
BITCOIN'S price has tumbled yet AGAIN after Elon Musk had a Twitter spat with Kraken boss Jesse Powell.
The billionaire was offended when Powell said he was ignorant about the cryptocurrency and that he should "do more studying".
The row kicked off when Powell told that Bitcoin will hit an all-time high in 2021.
He said: "I’ve said one Bitcoin, one Lambo by the end of the year.
“It may be a Lambo with fewer options or a smaller engine at this point, but I think we’re still looking at very lofty price targets.”
Lamborghinis have become the favourite splurge of Bitcoin millionaires.
Powell - who started the cyrptocurrency exchange Kraken in San Francisco in 2011 - also said that Bitcoin was "greener" than critics report.
He added: "I think Elon has some more studying to do."
These quotes were tweeted by Bitcoin Magazine - and noted by Musk.
He replied with a deadpan: ";Based on what data?"
Those four words resulted in a dip in Bitcoin's price - which plummeted 4.2 per cent as a result.
warned that Bitcoin (BTC) "could face downside pressure into the weekend".
The reported that Bitcoin rapidly dropped from $39,416 at 11am on June 17 to $37,754 this morning after Musk's critical message.
In a further update at 12.30pm on Friday, Coindesk said that "Bitcoin was trading around $37,900 at press time and is down about three per cent over the past 24-hours.
"A significant loss of momentum over the past few months suggests an extended period of drawdowns similar to the previous bear market in 2018."
Musk's comment was the latest in a series of remarks he has made about Bitcoin's use of fossil fuel being destructive.
He's made numerous backflips over Bitcoin - alternatively supporting the cryptocurrency, before doing a U-Turn and indicating he's not a fan.
Each tweet he posts about Bitcoin sends buyers - or sellers - into a frenzy, to the fury of those pushing the digital money.
Bitcoin Magazine then issued multiple tweets based on information from The Cambridge Centre For Alternative Finance.
It tweeted that the centre "estimates that 76% of all miners use renewable energies as part of their mix.
"CoinShares estimates that total share of renewables may even be as high as 73%."
Computers are needed for complex mathematical calculations to put a new Bitcoin into circulation online.
This process is also known as mining.
A lot of energy is needed for Bitcoin mining and some experts are concerned that vast amounts of fossil fuels are being used to create this energy.
Musk's latest tweet come days after he said that Tesla "will resume transactions" with the cryptocurrency.
But, his vow comes with a major proviso - clean energy usage by Bitcoin miners must be "confirmed", he warned.
He announced that Tesla would allow transactions in Bitcoin once 50 per cent of the crypto's mining is done with clean energy.
Musk tweeted on June 13: "When there's confirmation of reasonable (~50%) clean energy usage by miners with positive future trend, Tesla will resume allowing Bitcoin transactions."
However, he hasn't provided a start date for accepting Bitcoin payments.
Musk was reacting to a negative story based on remarks from Magda Wierzycka, head of cybersecurity firm Syngia.
In a radio interview Wierzycka accused him of "price manipulation" and selling a "big part" of his Bitcoin exposure.
"This is inaccurate," Musk said. "Tesla only sold ~10% of holdings to confirm [Bitcoin] could be liquidated easily without moving market.
The billionaire hadpreviously rocked the world of cryptocurrency in May 2021 by announcing that Tesla would no longer accept Bitcoin payments because of environmental impacts.
He tweeted: "Tesla has suspended vehicle purchases using Bitcoin.
"We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel."
Musk's comments about emissions prompted retired civil engineer Hass McCook to write in : "I have two words for you Mr Musk: 'Prove it.' Prove that the use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining is rising.
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"[It's] impossible to do with 100 per cent accuracy due to the decentralised nature of the industry and the impossibility of surveying every single mining operation in the world.
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"We will never really know for sure why Musk said and did what he did.
"What we can all take from this episode, however, is that... even a 'genius billionaire' can easily get sucked into false narratives and do a trillion dollars’ worth of damage."