News18» News»Buzz»Elon Musk's Twitter Bio Update Sends Bitcoin and Memes Flying, Twitter Calls it 'Musk Effect'
2-MIN READ

Elon Musk's Twitter Bio Update Sends Bitcoin and Memes Flying, Twitter Calls it 'Musk Effect'

File image of Elon Musk.

File image of Elon Musk.

Musk simply wrote '#bitcoin' in his Twitter bio on the microblogging site following which the cryptocurrency jumped as much as 14% on Friday to a two-week high.

  • Last Updated: January 29, 2021, 15:59 IST
auther-image

Buzz Staff

Bitcoin jumped as much as 14% on Friday to a two-week high after Tesla Inc chief Elon Musk tagged the cryptocurrency in his Twitter biography.

Musk simply wrote "#bitcoin" in his biography on the microblogging site.

The cryptocurrency was trading at $37,800 as of 0936 GMT.

The billionaire entrepreneur, followed by 43.7 million on Twitter, has a record of making market-moving comments on the site.

Of course, there were memes.

GameStop Corp, which has been at the centre of retail trading frenzy, surged 50% on Tuesday after Musk tweeted "Gamestonk!!", along with a link to the Reddit Wallstreetbets stock trading discussion group.

There, supporters affectionately refer to him as "Papa Musk." "Stonks" is a tongue-in-cheek term for stocks widely used on social media.

In December, Musk asked about the possibility of converting "large transactions" of Tesla's balance sheet into bitcoin, in a Twitter exchange with a well-known advocate for the digital currency.

Later in January, the tech mogul and currently the world's richest person tweeted two simple words from his Twitter account to his 42 million followers. "Use Signal."

What Musk referred to was the messaging app 'Signal' as an alternative to WhatsApp which has recently come under controversy for its change in privacy rules sparking concerns.

What investors, however, mistook it for the stock share of a company called 'Signal Advance Inc.' and invested in it. According to Bloomberg, by the end of the day, Signal Advance Inc. shares had surged more than sixfold. That was enough to push Signal Advance's rally more than 5,100% in three trading days giving it a market valuation of $390 million.

(With Reuters inputs)


Next Story