Elon Musk tweets he won’t sell Bitcoin, Ether and Dogecoin

The cryptocurrencies briefly jumped in price after the Tesla founder’s social media post before retreating again

Tesla founder Elon Musk tweeted on Monday that he owns Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin and isn’t planning to sell them. Reuters

Bitcoin, Ether and Dogecoin got a quick boost on Monday after Tesla founder Elon Musk tweeted that he owns the digital tokens and isn’t planning to sell.

Bitcoin, which had fallen as much as 2.9 per cent before Mr Musk’s tweet, briefly erased losses before retreating again.

Ether was up as much as 2.3 per cent before giving up some gains.

Dogecoin’s 3.8 per cent increase over the past hour was the biggest among cryptocurrencies tracked by CoinGecko.

Mr Musk, the world’s richest person and the chief executive of Tesla, is no stranger to social media posts on cryptocurrencies.

Last May, he said he hasn’t “and won’t” sell any Dogecoin, a token created in 2013 as a joke and for which he’d become a proponent.

In October, Mr Musk said he owns Bitcoin, Ether and Dogecoin.

This time around, he had posted a question on Twitter about the likely rate of inflation over the next few years.

Michael Saylor, chief executive of MicroStrategy and a prominent Bitcoin bull, replied: “Weaker currencies will collapse and the flight of capital from cash, debt and value stocks to scarce property like #bitcoin will intensify.”

“It is not entirely unpredictable that you would reach that conclusion,” Mr Musk retorted.

MicroStrategy took a $147 million impairment charge for the fourth quarter as Bitcoin’s price drop forced the company to write down its holding in the cryptocurrency.