Billionaire Elon Musk shook up the crypto market last week with his tweets, especially impacting Bitcoin. When he announced Tesla would stop accepting Bitcoin for car purchases, the price of the world’s most famous cryptocurrency plunged over several days.
Most recently, Bitcoin’s price dipped again after Musk seemed to agree with a tweet claiming Tesla sold all of its Bitcoin holdings worth around $1.5 billion earlier this year. This move pushed Bitcoin down to $42,000, its lowest since mid-February.
This wouldn’t be too surprising if Tesla’s environmental concerns were genuine, as stated in their tweet. But a Twitter user named “This is Bullish” discovered that while Bitcoin’s price was being driven down to multi-month lows, Tesla might have been quietly profiting from this price manipulation.
A tweet accusing Elon Musk of deliberately manipulating Bitcoin prices for profit
This conclusion comes from a surprising coincidence between the timing of Musk’s tweet and a transfer of about 10,000 Bitcoin (worth roughly $490 million at $49,000 per coin) into Tesla’s wallet on Coinbase.
Specifically, at 10:54 AM on May 13 (US time), Musk posted a tweet criticizing Bitcoin’s rising energy consumption. Just three minutes later, at 10:57 AM, Bitcoin’s price quickly dropped from $54,000 to $49,000.
Minutes after Musk’s tweet, Bitcoin’s price fell to $49,000 and about 10,000 Bitcoin were transferred
At this same time, a transaction of over 10,000 Bitcoin was recorded moving into a wallet believed to belong to Tesla on Coinbase. This wallet had previously purchased around 12,000 Bitcoin at prices above $40,000 back in early January 2021.
The timing of Bitcoin purchases linked to Tesla’s wallet
Even more interesting, the Twitter user received confirmation from Coinbase that before Musk’s tweet, the same wallet had sold about 10,000 Bitcoin (worth approximately $540 million at $54,000 per coin). Due to Coinbase’s processing, the transaction timestamp appeared slightly later than Musk’s tweet.
Charts show over 19,000 Bitcoin were moved to exchanges for trading before Musk’s tweet
In other words, “This is Bullish” suggests that Tesla sold 10,000 Bitcoin at $54,000 before Musk’s tweet, making about $540 million. Then, minutes after the tweet caused Bitcoin’s price to drop 10% to $49,000, Tesla’s wallet quietly bought back the same 10,000 Bitcoin for just $490 million.
With just one tweet, Tesla could have pocketed roughly $50 million in profit while keeping the same Bitcoin balance in its wallet. This also aligns with Musk’s tweet claim that “Tesla has not sold any Bitcoin.”
However, because cryptocurrency wallets are anonymous, it’s hard to prove these transactions definitively belong to Tesla. The evidence is mostly indirect. Still, this situation highlights how volatile the crypto market can be under the influence of celebrities like Elon Musk, and before him, John McAfee.
