Elon Musk engages in Twitter exchange with bitcoin enthusiast about converting Tesla’s balance sheet into cryptocurrency
- Shares of Tesla rose to a record high as investors geared up for the electric carmaker’s much anticipated entrance into the benchmark S&P 500 index on Monday
- Bitcoin rose to a high of US$24,299.75 on Sunday, after passing the US$20,000 milestone for the first time last week
Elon Musk inquired about converting “large transactions” of Tesla’s balance sheet into bitcoin in a Twitter exchange with Michael Saylor, a prominent booster of the digital currency.
In a series of tweets, Saylor, chief executive officer of Microstrategy, encouraged the billionaire to shift US dollars from the electric-car maker to bitcoin and “do your shareholders a US$100 billion favour.”
“Other firms on the S&P 500 would follow your lead & in time it would grow to become a US$1 trillion favour,” Saylor added in his tweet on Sunday.
The exchange came after Musk posted a suggestive image indicating that he’s tempted by bitcoin, which has more than tripled in value this year.
“Are such large transactions even possible?” Musk tweeted in response to Saylor. Numerous people assured him they are, as well as Saylor, who said he had bought more than US$1.3 billion in bitcoin and offered to share his “playbook” offline.
Bitcoin’s surge to record highs has investors racing for exposure to the rally – even if it means paying a high mark-up. As the largest cryptocurrency rocketed above US$23,000 for the first time this week, the mania pushed the price of the Bitwise 10 Crypto Index Fund as much as 650 per cent above the value of its holdings, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.