The price for bitcoin, already up on the day, received an extra boost from a new tweet by Tesla CEO Elon Musk on bitcoin mining’s “promising” renewable usage, as it’s near a key resistance level at $40,000 during U.S. trading hours on Monday.
- The news takes on added significance as it was Musk’s comments on May 13 regarding bitcoin’s environmental impact that started a dramatic sell-off in the crypto market that gathered force last week and continued through this past weekend with bitcoin dropping to just above $31,000 Sunday.
- Monday’s quick recovery came as demand from wealthy investors appears to have brought relief to the battered cryptocurrencies, as CoinDesk reported earlier.
- Adding support to bitcoin’s price Monday was Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio, who said he owns some bitcoin. He mentioned that during an interview recorded on May 6 and broadcast during the first day of CoinDesk's Consensus 2021 conference.
- The oldest cryptocurrency by market value extended its gains Monday afternoon after Musk tweeted about bitcoin mining’s “promising” renewable usage.
- “Spoke with North American Bitcoin miner,” Musk wrote in a tweet. “They committed to publish current & planned renewable usage & to ask miners WW to do so. Potentially promising.”
- Michael Saylor, the founder and CEO of MicroStrategy, appeared to have joined the meeting with Musk along with several bitcoin miners in North America, as Saylor implied in a follow-up tweet from Musk’s post.
- “The miners have agreed to form the Bitcoin Mining Council to promote energy usage transparency & accelerate sustainability initiatives worldwide,” Saylor wrote.
- During last week’s market crash, Saylor announced that his business intelligence firm has purchased another 229 BTC for $10 million in cash.
- According to Saylor, executives from Argo Blockchain, Galaxy Digital, Blockcap, Hive Blockchain, and a few other mining companies based in North America, were at the meeting.
- Several factors led to the market crash last week including China’s latest news about tightening crypto regulations.
