Bitcoin prices jumped nearly 5% after the eccentric Tesla billionaire’s tweet.<\/b>
\nAs the cryptocurrency market’s weeks-long rut continues, Tesla’s billionaire CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter Sunday afternoon to refute claims that he engaged in a bitcoin pump-and-dump scheme earlier this year and said the electric-vehicle company would once again invest in the world’s largest cryptocurrency once its mining operations constitute a „reasonable“ amount of clean energy usage. „The volatility we have seen [in bitcoin] is an unexpected function of what I would call market manipulation by Elon Musk, and if that happened to a listed company he would be investigated and severely sanctioned by the SEC,“ Wierzycka said Wednesday, likely referring to the fact that the SEC only has regulatory authority over securities\u2014and not currencies. The SEC defines market manipulation as the „iIntentional or willful conduct designed to deceive or defraud investors by controlling or artificially affecting the price of securities.“ Bitcoin soared in February after Tesla announced it invested $1.5 billion in the world’s largest cryptocurrency, but prices have plummeted since April, when Tesla disclosed it sold off part of its stake in a regulatory filing. Musk, who cheered on the crypto market during its massive rally earlier this year, helped intensify the crash last month by tweeting out that Tesla would no longer accept bitcoin because of its hefty environmental cost\u2014a single development that wiped out more than $300 billion in crypto market value in just hours. Markets have failed to recover since then amid an intensifying regulatory crackdown in China, and the value of the world’s cryptocurrencies\u2014at about $1.6 trillion Sunday\u2014is just 60% of what it was a month ago. Bitcoin prices jumped nearly $1,500 after Musk’s tweet, climbing to just under $37,550. Dubbed the Bitcoin Mining Council, Saylor and Musk’s effort would theoretically require participants to publish their renewable energy usage, Musk said last month, but a timeline hasn’t yet been shared. Despite bitcoin’s steep crash since last month, two of the cryptocurrency’s biggest corporate backers doubled-down on their bitcoin investments last week. MicroStrategy, which owns more bitcoin than any other corporation, announced last week it would raise $500 million in debt to buy more bitcoin\u2014on the same day it warned it would face a second-quarter loss of at least $285 million as a result of its bitcoin holdings plummeting in value. Sygnia CEO criticizes Elon Musk for alleged Bitcoin pump and dump (Cointelegraph) Bitcoin\u2019s Biggest Corporate Backer Expects $285 Million Loss After Crypto Crash\u2014But Wants To Raise $400 Million In Debt To Buy More (Forbes) Elon Musk And Michael Saylor Lead Effort By Bitcoin Miners To Address Environmental Concerns (Forbes)<\/p>\n