SpaceX dropping $373M worth of Bitcoin led to crypto market crash

SpaceX, the renowned aerospace technology firm, reportedly wrote down the value of its Bitcoin holdings by a total of $373 million in 2021 and 2022, according to an Aug. 17 report by The Wall Street Journal. The report suggests that SpaceX may have sold its entire Bitcoin stash, although it remains unconfirmed whether the entire $373 million worth of Bitcoin was liquidated.

The Wall Street Journal, after reviewing the firm’s financial documents, reported that SpaceX’s expenses amounted to roughly $5.2 billion in 2022. Additionally, the company spent $5.4 billion in 2021 and 2022 on acquiring property, equipment, and research and development.

Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, had publicly announced in 2021 that the firm had acquired a certain amount of Bitcoin. This announcement followed a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing that revealed Tesla, another Musk co-founded company, had plans to purchase $1.5 billion of the cryptocurrency. This move likely played a role in Bitcoin reaching a then-record price of over $43,000.

Tesla’s second-quarter 2023 earnings report indicated that the company had sold all but $184 million of its Bitcoin holdings. Specifically, Tesla liquidated over 30,000 BTC in the second quarter of 2022, amounting to approximately $936 million, which is roughly 75% of its initial $1.5 billion Bitcoin investment.

After the publishing of the news, the price of Bitcoin experienced a significant drop of around 10% within 10 minutes, causing the cryptocurrency’s value to fall to $25,166 on Binance. The OKX perpectual bitcoin price even plunged to $24,098. This price drop has been attributed by some in the Twitter community to reports of SpaceX’s Bitcoin write-down and potential sale. Others have linked the decline to external factors, such as China’s Evergrande Group filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in New York and apparent bearish pattern in technical analysis of bitcoin price.

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Elon Musk Plans to Launch AI Startup to Compete with OpenAI

According to recent reports, Elon Musk is planning to launch an AI startup to compete with OpenAI, one of the most popular generative AI companies that he co-founded in 2015. Musk is reportedly assembling a team of AI researchers and engineers for the new venture and is in talks with existing investors from SpaceX and Tesla for investment. The new AI startup will place Musk among other tech giants, such as Google and Microsoft, in the race to build next-gen AI.

The alleged findings complement recent reports that Musk has been procuring nearly 10,000 graphics processing units to power Twitter’s AI initiatives. In addition, Musk has incorporated a company named X (X.AI) and changed the name of Twitter to “X Corp” in company filings as part of his plans to create an “everything app” under the “X” brand.

However, it is worth noting that Musk and more than 2,600 tech leaders and researchers signed an open letter urging a temporary pause on further AI development on March 30, citing “profound risks to society and humanity.”

Meanwhile, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has launched the Bedrock initiative to allow its users to build generative AI from foundation models. This move by AWS is another sign that tech companies are heavily investing in AI and trying to develop their own AI capabilities.

In conclusion, Elon Musk is reportedly launching an AI startup to compete with OpenAI, and is in talks with existing investors from SpaceX and Tesla for investment in the new venture. Musk’s recent incorporation of X (X.AI) and his plans to create an “everything app” under the “X” brand suggest that he is making significant investments in AI. Additionally, AWS’s Bedrock initiative highlights the ongoing efforts by tech companies to develop their own AI capabilities. While AI holds enormous potential for advancing society, it is crucial that the development of this technology is done in a responsible and ethical manner to minimize potential risks to society and humanity.

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Musk Says SpaceX will Follow Tesla’s Lead in Adding DOGE Payments

Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted that in the near future his space venture company SpaceX plans to introduce payments with his favourite crypto asset, dogecoin (DOGE).

He tweeted:

“Tesla merch can be bought with Doge, soon SpaceX merch too”

Musk has also previously mentioned that Tesla’s goods will be available for purchase with dogecoin.

Historically, Musk’s tweets in support of DOGE have had a direct and positive impact on DOGE’s market price.

As a strong advocate of Dogecoin (DOGE) and other Shiba Inu-themed meme coins, his post propelled Dogecoin to an all-time high of 67 cents last May.

Musk tweeted “Dog Daddy on SNL on May 8” and announced that he would be hosting “The Saturday Night Show” as “Dog Daddy.” The tweet rekindled positive investor sentiment towards Dogecoin, and the meme-based cryptocurrency quickly surged by more than 30%.

Musk’s Tesla is also one of the largest corporate buyers of Bitcoin, and Musk has hinted at the possibility of continuing to accept Bitcoin payments for its electric automobiles in the near future.

According to data from CoinMarketCap, the meme cryptocurrency has gained about 5.79% over the past 24 hours at the time of writing and is currently ranked 10th by market cap with a market cap of $ $11,379,882,764.

Dogecoin is now trading at around $0.0857.

In the future, Musk revealed that DOGE may be added as a new form of payment for Starlink subscription payments.

In total, Musk is the founder, CEO, and Chief Engineer at SpaceX; angel investor, CEO, and Product Architect of Tesla, Inc.; founder of The Boring Company; and co-founder of Neuralink and OpenAI.

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‘Musk effect’ sees crypto named after SpaceX’s Starlink satellites gain over 140% in three days

In a bizarre event, a cryptocurrency with the same name as SpaceX’s satellite range “Starlink” jumped over 140% as Elon Musk’s space technology company launched 53 of them into the Earth’s lower orbit.

Written as StarLink (STARL), the little-known crypto rallied 13.70% on Nov. 13 — the day of the satellite launch, another 69% a day after it, and by up to 27% on Nov. 15. The massive upside move brought STARL’s net returns on investment by a little over 140% in just less than three days, data from the OKEx exchange shows.

STARL/USDT daily price chart. Source: TradingView

STARL comes under the ‘Musk Effect’

The name alone acted as a common denominator between StarLink the crypto and Starlink the SpaceX’s satellite wing. As a result, it appeared that traders merely pumped the crypto through coordinated efforts while attempting to cash on SpaceX’s satellite launch event.

Some of the reasons include Elon Musk’s influence on the crypto market as well as the rise of meme-tokens and “meme-stock” investing phenomenon as a whole. 

It started with the billionaire investors tweeting in favor of Dogecoin (DOGE), a meme cryptocurrency, that pushed its per token price to a record high of $0.76 in May 2021 following a 15,700%-plus year-to-date (YTD) rally.

Musk’s decision to invest in Bitcoin (BTC) via his other company, Tesla, also led the flagship cryptocurrency up from around $39,000 in February 2021 to almost $65,000 in April 2021.

Meanwhile, his criticism of Bitcoin over its alarming carbon emissions was considered instrumental by many market analysts behind the notorious May 2021 crypto crash.

BTC/USD daily price chart featuring Elon Musk’s influence on Bitcoin market. Source: TradingView

Additionally, Musk’s cryptic tweeting about his pet dog, a Japanese breed called Shiba Inu, helped fuel the price rally of its namesake token. Trading under the ticker SHIB, the cryptocurrency’s year-to-date returns by the end of October came out to be around  375%.

Most recently, another cryptocurrency named after Musk, namely Dogelon Mars, surged by more than 4,200% in October, underscoring how the “Musk effect” influenced crypto markets.

Related: Meme tokens and dogcoins flood the market as price wars heat up

However, per its whitepaper, StarLink operates as a standalone crypto project, with no connection to its namesake satellites.

It presents itself as a “decentralized metaverse project” with STARL acting as its official default currency, helping users to purchase everything from services like gaming to virtual real estate.

What’s next for StarLink the crypto

The latest bout of STARL buying has pushed its price higher but has failed to generate adequate price momentum.

As shown in the chart below, the STARL price has been forming higher highs through the ides of November, but its relative strength index (RSI) has been sloping downward, painting lower highs instead. That signals a classic bearish divergence due to a lack of follow-through upside momentum.

STARL/USDT two-hour price chart. Source: TradingView

As a result, STARL may undergo a price correction in the coming sessions as its ongoing parabolic support attempts to keep it from testing $0.00064 as an interim downside target.

Nevertheless, holding above the said price floor could have STARL bulls retest the token’s record high near $0.00087.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.