Elon Musk has been named Person of the Year 2021 by Time Magazine.
Elon Musk (@elonmusk) is TIME’s 2021 Person of the Year #TIMEPOY https://t.co/8Y5BhIldNs pic.twitter.com/B6h6rndjIh
— TIME (@TIME) December 13, 2021
Elon Musk has a lot of influence on the crypto market
That it is precisely Elon Musk who becomes person of the year is actually not surprising. Musk is reshaping the world of solar energy, electric cars, robots, cryptocurrency, climate, brain-computer implants and space travel.
So, as implied above, Tesla’s CEO has also made a string of crypto-related headlines this year.
For example, it became world news that Tesla invested half a billion dollars in Bitcoin. After that, however, the CEO turned around and told that Bitcoin was harmful to the environment. Also, Musk has often influenced the crypto markets due to his interest in meme cryptocurrencies such as Dogecoin.
Despite Musk’s inextricable ties to the Dogecoin, many analysts say that the verdict about the environmental damage of the Bitcoin miners has been by far the most important. Musk wrote on Twitter:
“We are concerned about the rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of all fuels,” Musk said. He added that “Tesla will not sell Bitcoin and we plan to use it for transactions once mining moves to more renewable energy.”
Musk caused huge controversy on Bitcoin Twitter at the time, but many believe he was right. Bitcoin indeed uses an enormous amount of energy. Comparable to the energy consumption of the whole of the Netherlands.
Since then, a renewed debate has arisen
Musk addresses major crypto issues
When he’s not tweeting about Bitcoin’s environmental impact or Dogecoin, Musk is expressing his views on important issues surrounding the crypto world.
In September, Musk said the US government should “do nothing” when it comes to regulating cryptocurrency.
“It is not possible to destroy crypto, but it is possible for governments to slow its progress.”
He also targeted the Chinese government for its crackdown on crypto.
“I suppose cryptocurrency is fundamentally aimed at reducing the power of a centralized government. They don’t like that,” he said.