Anyone who follows cryptocurrency markets will know that you can never accuse them of being boring, never more true than in the last few days, as the price of bitcoin embarked on yet another roller-coaster ride — with Elon Musk at the center of the story.

Bitcoin, which first broke through $50,000 Feb. 16 after previously breaking through $40,000 Feb. 8, hit a peak of $58,012 Feb. 21. Then a selloff began. Whether bitcoin was ever sustainable at that price is open to argument, but Musk (pictured), founder and chief executive officer of Tesla Inc. and SpaceX Inc., has plenty to say about that.

The precipitous rise of bitcoin beyond $40,000 and then above $50,000 is attributed to Tesla, which stated in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it had purchased $1.5 billion in bitcoin under a new investment policy and that the company may “acquire and hold digital assets from time to time in the long term.” Tesla also said it was looking to accept bitcoin as a form of payment for its products, which include electric cars and solar panels.

Musk, who is subject to an agreement between Tesla and the SEC that’s meant to “oversee Musk’s communications” — referring to his use of Twitter — has been pushing up the price of not only Twitter but the joke cryptocurrency Dogecoin as well through his tweets.

When Musk tweets, cryptocurrency investors listen, and they also listen to his negative statements, which is why the price of bitcoin is on yet another roller-coaster ride. Musk wrote on Twitter that he thought the price of bitcoin and Ethereum “do seem high lol,” and when knowledge of the tweet was shared widely is roughly the point where the price of bitcoin started to plunge.

That said, BTC & ETH do seem high lol

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 20, 2021

CNBC reported on Monday that bitcoin dropped 10% following Musk’s tweet, but it didn’t stop there. It eventually dropped 21% off its high, to $45,393.

As a result, Musk has also seen his net worth drop too. In what could be argued to be a self-inflicted wound, Musk’s net worth dropped to $183 billion, seeing him fall behind Amazon.com Inc.’s Jeff Bezos as the world’s richest person.

The long-term outlook for bitcoin may not be necessarily bleak, however, and Musk to his credit does play a long game when it comes to investing. Bitcoin was back above $50,000, trading at $50,553.92 as of 10:41 p.m. EST.

Photo: 137687407@N05/Flickr