Bitcoin slipped 4 percent on Friday following Tesla boss Elon Musk was at it again – now firing off several tweets that appeared to lament a split with all the cryptocurrency.
Tesla’s big position in bitcoin and Musk’s large personal following frequently place crypto markets on edge whenever he tweets, and the price fell after he submitted”#Bitcoin”, a broken-heart emoji along with an image of a couple discussing a separation.
Musk followed that up by submitting a breakup comic strip and replying”fine” to an illustration of rival crypto dogecoin posted by crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN.O). It was uncertain what, if anything, some of those tweets meant.
Musk has previously said Tesla wouldn’t sell its bitcoin, but his tweets were enough to unsettle markets nevertheless brittle following May’s crash. “He’s trolling the community,” said Bobby Ong, co-founder of crypto data aggregator and analytics website CoinGecko.
Friday’s fall pushed bitcoin below its 20-day moving average to $37,710, and took some of the edge off its week-to-date gains – though it has still climbed nearly 6% to put it on course for its best week in about a month.
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Musk has been a major promoter of cryptocurrencies but has turned critical of bitcoin since suspending Tesla plans to take it in payment for cars, owing to concerns about its energy use.
Bitcoin and several other cryptocurrencies are still recovering from a crash last month in the wake of that decision and on news of renewed regulatory scrutiny in China.