On Monday morning, shortly after midnight, in a Twitter discussion concerning inflation, Tesla CEO Elon Musk stated that he would not be selling his crypto assets, which include unspecified amounts of Dogecoin, Bitcoin, and Ether. Dogecoin then reached its highest price in the recent five days, $0.119.
Musk made the announcement in response to Michael Saylor, the CEO of MicroStrategy, who replied on a different Twitter thread Musk created in which he asked his followers for their thoughts on the inflation rate over the next few years. While Saylor stated that inflation will induce more people to purchase Bitcoin, Musk responded that it is better to hold assets such as a home or equities to hedge against inflation.
“As a general rule, for people seeking advice from this thread, it is generally better to possess tangible objects, such as a home or stock in firms you believe manufacture good products, than money when inflation is strong,” Musk said. “I still have and will not sell my Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Doge FWIW,” he wrote.
According to CoinMarketCap, Dogecoin has been declining since last Wednesday, reaching a seven-day low of $0.1107 the day before Musk’s post. However, in two hours early Monday morning, Dogecoin’s price soared roughly 7% to a five-day high of $0.119 before falling 4% and stabilizing around $0.1142. As of Monday morning, Dogecoin was still down 27% from its 30-day high of $0.1574 set on February 13.
Price fluctuations in cryptocurrencies, particularly Dogecoin, are nothing new. The cryptocurrency frequently rises in response to any mention of Musk, its self-proclaimed “Dogfather.” According to a recent study conducted by the Network Contagion Research Institute, a non-profit organisation that analyses the spread of disinformation and deceit on social media, Dogecoin is especially vulnerable to rumors on Reddit and other social media platforms.
The other two cryptocurrencies named in Musk’s post also momentarily surged before returning early Monday morning, albeit not nearly as much as Dogecoin. When Musk’s tweet was sent shortly after midnight, Bitcoin surged 1.6 percent and Ether rose 2.2 percent.
After being pushed into the spotlight following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, cryptocurrency prices have typically fallen in the last week. As of Monday, the two most prominent cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin and Ether, were still down by double digits from their 30-day highs. Bitcoin was down almost 13% from its 30-day high of $45,077, and Ether was down roughly 19% from its high of $3,185.
