Changpeng Zhao, CEO of the world’s largest crypto exchange Binance, recently fired off a series of pointed tweets aimed at Elon Musk after Bitcoin’s price took a hit following one of Musk’s cryptic posts. Musk tweeted with the hashtag #Bitcoin, a broken heart emoji, and a photo of an angry couple breaking up, hinting that his love for Bitcoin might be over. Right after the tweet, Bitcoin’s price dropped from $39,475 to $35,578 before bouncing back to $36,729, according to Binance data.
Seeing the crypto market repeatedly shaken by Musk’s casual tweets, Binance’s CEO quickly responded with two tweets loaded with meaning.
In the first, Zhao wrote, “With great power comes great responsibility, that’s greatness. Great power with a messed-up sense of humor is just awkward and not funny.” His second tweet was even sharper: “Tweets that cause financial harm to others aren’t funny at all. That’s irresponsible.” Just hours earlier, CZ had posted a brief warning: “Don’t be manipulated.”
CZ believes influential figures like Elon Musk should act more responsibly instead of spreading negativity that hurts investors financially.
Although Zhao never mentioned Musk by name, most online users clearly understood the criticism was directed at the Tesla CEO, who has posted several anti-Bitcoin messages in recent weeks. Even Justin Sun, a well-known crypto figure behind TRON (TRX) and BitTorrent (BTT), tagged Musk directly under CZ’s tweet.
This isn’t the first time the Chinese-Canadian billionaire has taken shots at Musk. Just days ago, CZ mocked Tesla’s Bitcoin stance and implied Musk was being hypocritical.
“When you use electricity to power cars, it’s environmentally friendly. But when you use electricity to run the world’s most efficient financial networks, suddenly it’s an environmental concern,” Zhao tweeted.
According to Forbes, Changpeng Zhao’s net worth is around $1.9 billion, mostly from Binance.
Zhao’s comments highlight the double standards of Tesla, which stopped accepting Bitcoin payments over environmental concerns related to crypto mining, causing the market to plunge. Then Musk hinted Tesla might sell its Bitcoin holdings, pushing prices even lower.
CZ isn’t alone in being annoyed by Musk’s tweets. Data from social media sentiment tracker Awario shows negative reactions to Musk’s posts on Twitter hit an all-time high recently. Despite this, Musk’s Twitter followers grew by over 3 million in May 2021, bringing his total to 56 million.
Compiled by the team
