Tesla CEO Elon Musk shows support for crypto in battle against fiat currencies

The earlier selloff on Friday hit Bitcoin believers still fuming after Musk did an about-face and criticized the token for its energy usage.

Elon Musk is again tweeting about technology and cryptocurrencies, and this time he’s clear on where his support is at.

Earlier in the week, Tesla CEO Elon Musk had tweeted that he won’t be selling any Dogecoin. (Reuters)

In a thread started by Musk himself comparing magic to technology where someone asked what he thought about people “who are angry at you because of crypto,” the Tesla Inc. CEO tweeted that the “true battle is between fiat & crypto. On balance, I support the latter.”

Bitcoin rose after Musk’s post, and was trading at around $38,700 as of 9:32 a.m. New York time.

Musk has made similar comments before, including in December when he tweeted that “Bitcoin is almost as bs as fiat money.” In February, he elaborated to say that “when fiat currency has negative real interest, only a fool wouldn’t look elsewhere.”

Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers recently compared crypto to gold as a safe haven asset, but said he doesn’t expect consumers to turn to Bitcoin for most of their payments, even though it could become an important part of e-commerce.

Earlier in the week, Musk had tweeted that he won’t be selling any Dogecoin and he also posted a cryptic image of a dollar bill with a Shiba Inu dog replacing the face of a former U.S. president.