Elon Musk has made it a habit to rattle stock markets on a routine basis and MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor was a happy man on Monday to learn that Musk's electric vehicle company Tesla Inc had finally bought a handful of Bitcoin cryptocurrency.
"Congratulations & thank you to @elonmusk & @Tesla on adding #Bitcoin to their balance sheet. The entire world will benefit from this leadership," Saylor tweeted as he congratulated Musk's leadership.
Bitcoin took another large stride toward mainstream acceptance on Monday after billionaire Musk's EV Tesla Inc revealed it had bought $1.5 billion of the cryptocurrency and would soon accept it as a form of payment for cars, sending the cryptocurrency shooting higher.
The announcements, buried deep in Tesla’s 2020 annual report, drove a roughly 20% surge in the world’s most widely held cryptocurrency to over $47,000. At current prices, 0.8 bitcoins would be enough to buy an entry-level Tesla Model 3.
Congratulations & thank you to @elonmusk & @Tesla on adding #Bitcoin to their balance sheet. The entire world will benefit from this leadership.https://t.co/FVTepBqAI2— Michael Saylor (@michael_saylor) February 8, 2021
Since then, social media, especially Twitter, has been flooded with growth charts of the cryptocurrency, bitcoin memes, and Musk's desire to indulge in the crypto market.
However, many users were reminded of a rather interesting Twitter exchange between Musk and Michael Saylor which, they believe, may have driven the former to purchasing the cryptocurrency.
Back in December 2020, replying to an explicit bitcoin meme posted by Musk, Saylor tweeted at Tesla chief and wrote:
"If you want to do your shareholders a $100 billion favor, convert the $TSLA balance sheet from USD to #BTC. Other firms on the S&P 500 would follow your lead & in time it would grow to become a $1 trillion favor."
If you want to do your shareholders a $100 billion favor, convert the $TSLA balance sheet from USD to #BTC. Other firms on the S&P 500 would follow your lead & in time it would grow to become a $1 trillion favor.— Michael Saylor (@michael_saylor) December 20, 2020
Intrigued, Musk wondered if such "large transactions" were even possible.
Are such large transactions even possible?— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 20, 2020
It was then Taylor offered to hand his "playbook" with Musk offline.
Yes. I have purchased over $1.3 billion in #BTC in past months & would be happy to share my playbook with you offline - from one rocket scientist to another.— Michael Saylor (@michael_saylor) December 20, 2020
As the news of bitcoin taking a leap (thanks to Musk) hit the Internet, the aforementioned Twitter exchange went viral on the microblogging platform.
How it startedHow it’s going#Bitcoin #Tesla pic.twitter.com/eQtr8U5lBU— Molly Spiers (@CoinCornerMolly) February 8, 2021
“In retrospect, it was inevitable.”@elonmusk #Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/HVDO0DEI09— Magic (@alextanmagic) February 8, 2021
#BitcoinHow it started How it's going pic.twitter.com/bUVGYWS77m— CoinBeast (@coinbeastmedia) February 9, 2021
A #bitcoin story in two acts. pic.twitter.com/HCrm7cNdNY— Brad Michelson (@BradMichelson) February 9, 2021
The educational moment. https://t.co/0xuOcSFBmn— Russ Harben (@RussHarben) February 8, 2021
What a player. 4D Chess. https://t.co/NBnqUAwd4P— Shamino (@ShaminoD) February 8, 2021
Clearly @elonmusk is a fast mover for ideas he likes. https://t.co/z3rM23JwwU— Kawaljit Singh Bedi (@kawaljit) February 8, 2021
It turns out such large transactions were, in fact, possible. https://t.co/KpUmdH2kEK— Scott Kane (@ataxiwardance) February 8, 2021
Musk, in January, sent the Bitcoin stocks flying with an update in his Twitter bio that simply read: "#bitcoin".
He then explicitly expressed his support for the cryptocurrency in a chat on social media app Clubhouse in February.
"I am a supporter of bitcoin," Musk said.
"I was a little slow on the uptake," he said, adding he should have bought it eight years ago.
"I think bitcoin is on the verge of getting broad acceptance by conventional finance people."
(With Reuters inputs)