Bitcoin, Ether, Dogecoin prices see brief spike after Elon Musk says he isn’t selling

Bitcoin, Ether and Dogecoin prices got a quick boost on Monday after Elon Musk tweeted that he owns the digital tokens and isn’t planning to sell. Bitcoin price, which had fallen as much as 2.9% before Musk’s tweet, briefly erased losses before retreating again. Ether price was up as much as 2.3% before giving up some gains. Dogecoin price’s 3.8% gain over the past hour was the biggest among cryptocurrencies tracked by CoinGecko. 

Musk, the world’s richest person and the chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., 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, 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, the chief executive officer of MicroStrategy Inc. and a prominent Bitcoin bull, replied: “Weaker currencies will collapse, and the flight of capital from cash, debt, & value stocks to scarce property like #bitcoin will intensify.”

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