Elon Musk, World’s Wealthiest Person, Touts Bitcoin Over Cash

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Dawn Allcot
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Britta Pedersen/AP/Shutterstock / Britta Pedersen/AP/Shutterstock
Britta Pedersen/AP/Shutterstock / Britta Pedersen/AP/Shutterstock

As SpaceX raised $850 million with a round of funding from Sequoia Capital and other institutional investors, SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk reclaimed the title of world’s richest person, with a net worth of $199.9 billion. His next title? Richest man on Mars, if all goes as planned.

See: Elon Musk’s SpaceX Raises $850 million in Private Funding
Find: 5 Times Elon Musk Completely Shocked Us

But by that time, the majority of his holdings may be in Bitcoin, as he announced last year that he plans to sell most of his possessions in pursuit of his goal to colonize Mars. “I’ll have basically almost no possessions with a monetary value, apart from the stock in the companies,” Musk told Mathias Dopfner, CEO of Axel Springer, in an interview published by Business Insider. “I want to be able to contribute as much as possible to the city on Mars. That means just a lot of capital.”

Today, Musk tweeted his views on fiat money and crypto in response to an interview with Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, produced by Bloomberg TV. Binance is the cryptocurrency exchange that launched futures for Dogecoin, an alt cryptocurrency that Musk has frequently created memes about on Twitter, noting that he was going to buy his son some coins.

See: Musk Tweets Again and Dogecoin – a Bitcoin Rival – Skyrockets
Find: Bitcoin’s Value Skyrockets to $1 Trillion as Price Hits $54,000

During the interview, Zhao noted, “I’m surprised that Elon’s so gung-ho on Dogecoin,” but also noted that Tesla invested in Bitcoin, not Doge.

Musk replied in a tweet, “Tesla’s action is not directly reflective of my opinion. Having some Bitcoin, which is simply a less dumb form of liquidity than cash, is adventurous enough for an S&P 500 company.”

See: Tesla Buys $1.5 Billion in Bitcoin, Says It Will “Soon” Accept It as Form of Payment
Find: Economy Explained – How Does Cryptocurrency Work – and Is It Safe?

He added, “However, when fiat currency has negative real interest, only a fool wouldn’t look elsewhere. Bitcoin is almost as bs as fiat money. The key word is ‘almost.'”

In the past, Musk has tweeted, “Bitcoin is my safe word.” If you consider the meaning of safe word — a way to escape when things get too heavy — his cryptic tweet makes more sense. Musk insisted on Twitter that he’s an engineer, not an investor, but diversification is almost always a good strategy when it comes to investment.

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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Elon Musk, World’s Wealthiest Person, Touts Bitcoin Over Cash

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