Born in Pretoria, South Africa, Elon Musk developed a knack for everything computer-related at a young age. At just 12 years old, he created a video game and sold it to a PC magazine for a few hundred dollars in 1984. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor’s degree in physics and economics, Musk went on to pursue opportunities in the internet sector.
In a long series of entrepreneurial ventures, Musk would found maps and business directory provider Zip2, PayPal and Tesla through a series of acquisitions as well as SpaceX. His personal life remains more tremulous, having been divorced three times and fathering seven children, as well as a Shiba Inu dog.
However, Musk’s rather eccentric personality may be too much for the confines of regulation. He famously settled fraud charges with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission after tweeting, without evidence, that Tesla was to go private at $420 per share with “funding secured.” Musk has developed a fascination with the cryptocurrency space in recent years, calling digital money “indestructible” and stressing that regulators should not be trying to slow down its adoption.
Musk’s celebrity-entrepreneur status has garnered him over 70 million Twitter followers as well as the ability to influence market movements in the cryptocurrency space. Last March, Musk whipped up an investor frenzy after announcing Tesla would be accepting Bitcoin as payment for car purchases. Then, the crypto market crashed in May after Musk back-peddled and dropped the announced plans, citing environmental concerns from Bitcoin mining’s energy use. Tesla purchased $1.5 billion worth of BTC just before the price spike and later announced in June that it had sold about 10% of the holdings to test the liquidity of such a volume.
Even wilder was Musk’s affiliation with Dogecoin. Famous for his relatable love of memes, the celebrity influencer and executive began shilling the coin on social media as its price appreciated during the first half of 2021. When asked about his DOGE trades, Musk replied, “I haven’t and won’t sell any Doge.” However, fans were “heartbroken” when the “Dogefather” did not shill the coin hard enough during his appearance on a highly anticipated Saturday Night Live episode in May, causing the coin’s price to tumble nearly 30% in a matter of hours.
Later in the year, Musk declared that “Dogecoin is better than Bitcoin for payments,” and confirmed that Tesla would be accepting DOGE as payment for its products. Today, enthusiasm for the meme coin appears to have faded, its price currently down almost 80% from the all-time highs achieved in May 2021.
Heading into 2022, Musk continues to post his unabridged and uncensored opinions about the cryptocurrency space. For example, when Twitter Blue rolled out NFT profile pictures, Musk responded by saying, “this is annoying,” and that “Twitter is spending engineering resources on this bs while crypto scammers are throwing a spambot block party in every thread?!”
Then, as crypto investors began memeing about working at McDonald’s in light of the market crash, Musk tweeted, “I will eat a happy meal on TV if McDonald’s accepts Dogecoin.” Entertainment aside, expect to see more crypto adoption surrounding Musk’s portfolio of companies, as well as the Dogefather buying the dip.
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