Cryptocurrencies

Elon Musk – Cold-blooded calculator, little boy lost, provocative troll or devilish coach of the crypto community?

Roller Coaster
Bild: bukharova | Getty Images

A first look at Elon Musk and a second glance at a hysterical crypto community that regularly falls for their guru.

The above questions doesn´t claim to be deepened or even answered, by no means, for Elon Musk is unquestionably allowed to be whoever he wants to be. Due to the current strong movements in the crypto world, a closer look at his disturbingly hysteric crypto community should make more sense and will provide more insight.

One might assume that the Tesla CEO is unlikely to waste time on the entertainment genre. After all that man is an exceptionally hard worker, a technological one-man competence center, a profound visionary pioneer, in short: Musk is about to head for nothing less than the holy grail to make the world finally a better place more than in one way – moon and mars will follow without any doubt.

As founder, boss or driving force behind companies such as Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink and Boring Company, Musk always pursues most ambitious goals. Not a big surprise, why he sometimes just likes to let off steam on less exhausting but more lighthearted stages. He literally has no fear of contact, quite the opposite in fact, Musk presents himself in the iconic US-show "Saturday Night Live" to a large audience as a clumsy comic figure with glued on mustache without the slightest consideration for his image, he even grabs the chance of making himself everybody´s fool. 

Many unflattering TV appearances follow but no matter how deep the little boy lost dips into the grease cup in search of whatever he might be essentially missing, Elon takes any risk, you can tell by his eloquent face.

Elon Musk – the devilish helmsman of the roller coaster?

On Twitter more than 56 million followers are currently tracking each single one of his moves, weighing every spoken word on the gold scale. Or rather: on the crypto scales. Often one single word does it all, now and then it takes a whole coherent sentence to trigger a new earthquake on the crypto exchanges.

These earth shifts just now don't just happen to have an impact of one, two or three percentage points, the swings on the stock market easily rush towards ten or even twenty percent. However, whether up or down, it´s all due to one single individual´s current daytime mood, the state of mind and the proclamations of the great Zampano. This usually affects the lead currency Bitcoin alternating with the joke currency Dogecoin, altcoins follow in tow, unable to escape the push and pull of the master´s voice.

Honestly, who wants to blame Musk for the fact that he simply loves to act out to a greater extent in the role of the provocative troll? The phenomenon of a non-factual statement causing a tremendously powerful volcano eruption might certainly illuminate the soul of a person who´s torn by extreme requirements in daily life. However, we´re currently well advised to turn our eyes from Elon Musk for a moment and focus the spotlight on his millions of addressees, let´s face it, rather immature community.

If Musk´s announcement to stop using Bitcoin as a payment method for Tesla can make the e-money instantly collapse, it´s disturbing. If a simple response "indeed" does its job to send the valuation even deeper down the drain, it is a matter of concern. If his side note about “potentially promising talks with Dogecoin developers” instantly hikes the joke currency close into orbit, no big surprise - look who´s grinning widely from behind the control desk of the roller coaster?

The roller coaster helmsman, by the way, is getting the highest praise and broad approval as well as verbal beatings and hate comments in large numbers simultaneously – always dependent on which crypto price he´s currently shooting up or down. Apparently, the guru seems to act in large distance to his disciples; love or hate makes no difference, it simply doesn´t matter on his Twitter communication strategy.

Is the crypto market today more mature than its community?

The present situation happens to clearly confirm this assumption. The crypto market is so much more advanced and mature today than it was years ago. Impressively evidenced not least by the significant number of service providers and growing private and institutional investors who invest in cryptocurrencies with care and calculation. Rather long-term, therefore, the professional part of investors involved are likely to be largely immune to Musk´s troll tweets. They do what they have been doing with consistency and belief for quite a while: hold. Maybe even repurchase.

The instability, far beyond the "habitual volatility" of cryptocurrencies currently, is produced in this context to some extent by the crypto community itself. By newcomer investors in huge masses who head over heels buying and selling in sheer hysteria and panic. Whenever there´s a murmur, a word, an announcement, a thumbs up or down from the enlightener promising a new lucky strike or else devastating doom, a tremendous instant stampede sets off.

That´s unhealthy for sure but at the same time not a serious problem viewed in the long-term development light of the crypto markets. While already being far more advanced and consolidated in many respects virtual money and markets are still evolving further, even if for understandable reasons the turbulences these days create a different impression.

Elon Musk – devilish coach of a totally immature community?

Whether intentionally or accidentally, Musk is constantly managing his favorite part with great dedication. Fair enough, following his philanthropic inclinations the man might most possibly be right in the middle of a self-chosen teaching mission, exercising with a legion of cheering, desperate, ecstatic and horrified investors how to avoid personal disaster in any case: by holding up a gigantic mirror to the hooting crowd, pointing out its own nonsensical behavior.

Hands off from investments that you don´t really know and mechanisms which you don´t see through clearly. Don´t get caught up in any emotions, ecstasy or panic when a self-proclaimed guru just clears his throat. As we know, he doesn't cough consistently in the same pitch. What he honks today, he tears down tomorrow.

Regardless whether Musk is being pedagogically on the road or just having a good time trolling, the effect remains the same. After the third or fourth panic or euphoria attack due to a tweet, the healing effect should inevitably set in.

Firstly: A single person, even with “Musk power”, will fail to significantly influence cryptocurrencies in the long term with confusing tweets and contradictory actions. Secondly: Cryptocurrencies are an asset class with the aspiration to mature, in order to achieve long-term rewards, perhaps. The third: panic selling and euphoric buying is a most explosive strategy, which will not only shake one's emotional balance non-stop but even can leave behind botched existences in the worst-case scenario.

Is Elon Musk pursuing long-term crypto goals?

A purely rhetorical question but let´s face it: wind and weather can make or break plans, even voices and sounds can influence moods and therefore steps of immense significance, so just imagine what difference a singing girlfriend could make close to the ear of a notorious border blaster.

Now that we have set our eyes also a bit closer on this dazzling multi-layered freethinker, especially in connection with this still quite immature crypto community, we wouldn´t want to miss the potential role of the cool calculator with crypto visions.

At Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink and Boring Company, maker Musk is consistently putting his money where his mouth is in breathtaking dimensions. Hardly imaginable, him not involving cryptocurrencies in his business models as a former co-founder and technical director of PayPal and thus clearly pre-exposed in matters of digital payments.

In any case Mr. Musk remains good for a bombshell in the cryptocurrency space. Not necessarily in his familiar role as troll or puppet master, but more like unexpectedly out of the dark. Still open is whether his passion for Bitcoin will blossom again in the process or whether he will all of a sudden pop his joke currency Dogecoin out of the box into a new project, undoubtedly with a big bang. This jack of all trades could easily be trusted to develop a new ultimate cryptocurrency from scratch all on his own. The “ElonSpaceX-memory coin” possibly, the one and only which will serve as the all-embracing means of payment for everything that has ever existed on Earth and always will, moon and mars included of course.

One thing´s for sure: Elon Musk is unlikely, by the way, remaining connected to the crypto world only as an investor. A man who keeps constantly breaking boundaries with his uncompromising and controversial creativity and highest professionalism may be anything, anything but not just a user. 

And it goes without saying that hopefully all his valuable alter egos will continue to entertain and kick us in many ways again and again.