The Musk Effect

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Annnnd we're at it again people, it's amazing the amount of market angst Elon Musk can create. I'd anticipate this is due to total market cap being low and it wouldn't surprise me if Elon is one of the biggest cryptocurrancy holders in the game. It wasn't too long ago where Elon tweeted that his company Tesla would no longer be accepting cryptocurrancy as payment for Tesla vehicles due to the mining carbon footprint.

This caused the entire sector to pretty much bottom out. It also coincides with China's clamp down on bitcoin mining undertaken by coal fire power plants.

More recently Elon clarified his position staying that he only sold 10% of his holdings as he wanted to ensure that he could and not cause a market tank or lose out. I think Elon should have gone about it a bit differently because dumping 10% of his holdings and then tweeting that Bitcoin was bad for the environment and that he wouldn't be accepting it for his company did the complete opposite, caused a the market to tank.

On the back of Elon's tweet the cryptoshphere seems to be picking up now that Elon has clarified that he still holds bitcoin and that he is in fact going to accept it once again pending renewable energy being used to mine it.

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Elon's tweets however, did cause a scurry of activity which saw the establishment of Texas based miners move towards challenging the high CO2 emissions of Bitcoin and pledge to tackle the use of fossil fuels for mining.

Sue Ennis, head of corporate development and investor relations at Hut 8 a Canadian bitcoin mining firm stated that Elon started a fire. He caused the global mining community to band together and acknowledge the fact that bitcoin was not a environmentally clean industry.

As previously reported a bitcoin Mining council was established led by Michael Saylor.

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Elon and the council have clarified that Elon will have no involvement in the Bitcoin Mining Council and his position was just a meeting between himself and the council to discuss renewable energy.

Since Jaime Leverton became CEO of Hut 8 the Canadian bitcoin mining firm the companies priority became on environmental sustainability. The company has hired a head of power and aim to make the bitcoin mining firm 100% sustainable within 12 months.

At current the business uses 70% natural gas and 30% from wind with the hopes of increasing their source of renewable to 100%. You can read more Here

According to a recent study by University of Cambridge which can be found Here puts the renewable energy use on bitcoin at a conservative 39% with the vast majority of mining operations still focusing on fossil fuels. The report further outlines the CO2 emissions being more than some countries.

This caused China to also commence shutting down mining operations in their provinces that were reliant on coal. El Salvador attempted to claw some of the market by legislating Bitcoin as an accepted currency.

It hoped to draw in mining companies to utilise its thermo power plants to mine cryptocurrancy.

However, the market has different ideas with many commencing the move to Kazakhstan and some even are eyeing Africa for the cheap and reliable power supplies. You can read more about it Here

Either way what seems to be occuring is a market split one focused on renewable energy and tackling the global CO2 footprint and another sector solely focused on cheap, constant power supplies and are not focused on what's producing that power.

In moths to come I would anticipate this split to cause financial impacts as well as geopolitical ones. America is still committed to entering the Bitcoin sector and becoming the silicon Valley of bitcoin. Rogue operators seeking cheap fossil fuel power supply will most likely be in their sights.

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