‘It’s Happening’—Elon Musk Sparks Wild Bitcoin Price Speculation After Trump Declares ‘Crypto Revolution’
03/31 update below. This post was originally published on March 30
Bitcoin has struggled so far into U.S. president Donald Trump’s second term, though that could be about to change.
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The bitcoin price has dropped to under $70,000 per bitcoin, down from $126,000 per bitcoin in October, with a crypto market crash wiping $2 trillion from the combined market that BlackRock has warned is almost entirely “nonsense.”
Now, as the mystery of bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto is about to be blown up, U.S. president Donald Trump has said he sees a crypto “revolution” happening, making bitcoin and crypto “powerful.”
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U.S. president Donald Trump has called bitcoin “powerful,” declaring a crypto “revolution” is underway even as the bitcoin price struggles.
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Trump declared bitcoin “very powerful,” during a speech at the Future Investment Initiative Summit in Miami on Friday, predicting that crypto is “all becoming powerful” and reiterating an earlier warning that China wants to “take over” crypto.
“My administration has also worked tirelessly to ensure that America remains at the bleeding edge of [the] crypto revolution. We’re really doing great. And if we’re not going to do it, then China is going to take it over. They want to do it,” Trump said.
03/31 update: Tesla billionaire Elon Musk, whose brief stint in Donald Trump’s White House ended with a row over government spending, has once again sparked speculation that his interest in bitcoin and crypto is returning.
Musk has turned a static bitcoin-inspired anime illustration, first shared by Musk back in bitcoin’s halcyon days of 2020, into a short animated clip, posting it in response to a user request with the words: “Here you go.”
Musk’s post, believed to be the first time he’s posted about bitcoin this year, according to self-described bitcoin historian Pete Rizzo, set off a wave of bitcoin speculation, with many hoping its a sign the world’s richest person could be gearing up for a full-blown return to the front lines of crypto after sitting on the sidelines for years.
“It’s happening,” Samson Mow, the chief executive of bitcoin wallet app Jan 3, posted to X alongside his earlier prediction that Musk will “go hard” on bitcoin this year and the bitcoin price will top $1.3 million.
Earlier this month, Musk has said the long-awaited X Money service on the social media platform he bought and rebranded from Twitter will open to the public next month.
Bitcoin and crypto prices are expected to benefit from the “crypto-integrated” X Money.
Earlier, Musk shared a post that called X Money “a once-in-a-generation opportunity,” that will include, “high-yield savings,” and said users will be able to “invest, get loans, have money market accounts, maybe even treasury access, cool Smart Cashtags that let you see live stock prices in your timeline and execute trades seamlessly, crypto integration, [and] potentially full asset management.”
Musk’s Tesla continues to hold around 10,000 bitcoin worth almost $800 million, while his combined rocket-AI-social media company SpaceX is preparing for an initial public offering (IPO) that will reveal the extent of its bitcoin and crypto holdings.
Last year, Trump warned China is trying to take on the U.S. as the world’s “capital of crypto.”
“I don’t want to have somebody else have crypto and have China be number one in the world in crypto,” Trump told CBS’s 60 Minutes. “Because in crypto it’s a kind of an industry where basically you’re going to have number one and you’re not gonna have a number two. And right now we’re number one by a long shot. I want to keep it that way. The same way we’re number one with AI, we’re number one with crypto.”
Trump, speaking at the Future Investment Initiative Summit, went on to say that “so many people, now, they want to pay you in crypto. They want to pay you in bitcoin, and we have to be at the top of it,” Trump said.
Last week, the Trump administration’s push to connect crypto with mainstream finance has seen crypto exchange Coinbase team up with Better Home & Finance to let homebuyers pledge their crypto holdings as collateral for mortgage down payments, the first crypto-backed mortgage to be accepted by Fannie Mae, the Federal National Mortgage Association which is under government conservatorship.
Trump called last year’s Genius Act stablecoin bill “a historic achievement,” accusing “Democrats and their big bank donors” of working to block the crypto market structure bill known as the Clarity Act from passing the Senate.
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The bitcoin price has crashed over the last few months, though some are now calling the bitcoin price bottom.
Forbes Digital Assets
The Polymarket odds of the bill now passing this year have dropped to just over 50%, down from almost 90% last month.
Crypto companies and big banks have clashed over whether crypto-based stablecoins should be allowed to pay interest on deposits, with banking lobby groups warning it could undermine banks’ ability to lend.
Trump, who entered the crypto space via his non-fungible token (NFT) digital trading card collection, going on to launch various meme coins and lead his family’s World Liberty Financial crypto company, has become enmeshed in the crypto space.
As well as seeing his sons Don Jr and Eric set up their own bitcoin businesses, Trump has filled his cabinet with bitcoin and crypto backers, most notably his commerce secretary Howard Lutnick, who helped to legitimize stablecoin issuer Tether by banking the El Salvador-based company through the Wall Street giant Cantor Fitzgerald, which he led until joining the Trump administration.
