Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla. Photo = AP
Tesla changed about 8% of its cash holdings to Bitcoin. It has announced that Tesla vehicles can also be bought with Bitcoin. Soon after, the value of bitcoin soared. It jumped from $3,8871.4 to $46,000.
Experts say that this announcement by Tesla could have been expected if you carefully read the Twitter of Elon Musk, Tesla CEO. Musk’s CEO increased his mention of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Dogecoin on Twitter last year.
Financial company Robert W. Beard&Co said, “The Musk CEO tends to hint at Tesla’s future business through his Twitter account. The recent tweets by Musk CEO focus on digital currencies, including Bitcoin.” said.
Regarding this, some point out that Musk’s CEO started “floating virtual currency” before starting to introduce Tesla Bitcoin. CNBC reported that “in recent weeks, questions have been raised about how Musk’s CEO has led many people to buy cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Dogecoin through Twitter.”
It is also possible that trading authorities, such as the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), could question the recent tweets of CEO Musk. Musk’s CEO has a contract with the SEC to limit the topic of tweets. In 2018, after CEO Musk posted a plan to delist Tesla on Twitter, the stock price jumped. At the time, the SEC accused Musk CEO of using Twitter to manipulate Tesla’s stock price.
At the time, Musk’s CEO was fined 20 million dollars (about 22.3 billion won) on charges of manipulating Twitter stock prices. Since then, Musk’s CEO signed a contract with the SEC to use social media such as Twitter. When Musk’s CEO tweets about a sensitive matter related to Tesla’s company, it must first get approval from Tesla’s legal team. This includes the company’s financial status, potential mergers and acquisitions (M&A) plans, production and sales volume and forecasts and estimates, and new business contents that are not related to the existing business lineup.
The key is whether the tweets posted by Musk CEO can be viewed as a’new business notice’. Musk’s CEO talked about bitcoin primarily through playful phrases and memes (pictures that are popular on the Internet). Discussions with experts also mainly raised questions. In December of last year, CEO Musk asked Michael Sailor, CEO of MicroStrategy, if he could make large-scale transactions with Bitcoin. It was a question about what Sailor said, “If you want to earn $100 billion for Tesla shareholders, change Tesla’s cash reserves from US dollars to Bitcoin.”
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported, “The CEO of Musk asked Tesla whether he posted a tweet about cryptocurrency on Twitter after reviewing the legal team, but there was no answer.”
Experts believe that the odds of accusation are low even if the SEC conducts an actual investigation. This is because if Musk’s recent tweets are “simply uploaded from personal interests,” there is no place to fall. Securities law expert John Coffee Jr., professor of law at Columbia University, said, “The SEC has previously objected to Mr. Musk’s tweet, but it did not make much of it. The SEC will not push him back this time.”
“The SEC has never beaten Musk’s CEO,” said Carson Block, founder of the due diligence company Muddy Water Search. “If they face up with Musk, the SEC will eventually be driven into a dead end.”
Reporter Sun Han-gyeol [email protected]
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