Elon Musk on Bitcoin, Dogecoin at the ’The B Word’ conference

Yahoo Finance’s Zack Guzman reports details on the appearance of Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey, and Cathie Wood at ‘The B Word’ conference.

Video Transcript

KRISTIN MYERS: Well, Bitcoin has been sliding lately as we see crackdowns on the cryptocurrency. But Bitcoin might have some knights in shining armor to save the day in the form of Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey, and Cathie Wood. Zack Guzman is here to tell us more about their appearance at the B Word Conference today. And just a note, that is B for Bitcoin, just to make sure that everyone knows. Zack, tell us a little bit more about their conversation at that conference.

ZACK GUZMAN: Well Kristin, this one got kicked off around 2:00 PM Eastern time. And shortly thereafter, we saw Bitcoin hit a new high for the day, crossing that $32,500 level. And it's been interesting to watch it all play out, still ongoing here, because you got ARK Invest Cathie Wood, alongside Jack Dorsey and Elon Musk, a lot of people listening closely to what Elon Musk had to say in regards to his holdings there, highlighting that SpaceX, as well as Tesla, hold Bitcoin.

Of course, we knew that Tesla disclosed that earlier this year, but also his own personal holdings, noting that his holdings in Bitcoin far outsize what he has in Ethereum, as well as Dogecoin. A bit of a joke there from Elon Musk, though, when he talked about his holdings, noting that neither Tesla nor SpaceX have sold nor he and that he loses money when these things go down. And he admitted to his own influence on the crypto, saying that he might pump, but he doesn't dump. And that got some laughs at the conference there.

But also a lot of questions around when Tesla, the company, might return to accepting Bitcoin for transactions. Of course, he's been critical of the way that some miners on the network have not used renewable energies like solar wind or hydropower and really focused in on China. Of course, we saw that crackdown now kicking some of those miners off the network that had been using coal to power their rig. So interesting so far here, as the panel is still ongoing.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Yeah, fascinating stuff there, Zack. I know that I was watching SNL-- I don't know if you did-- in early May when Elon Musk was the host. And we were all curious to see what he was going to say about crypto, especially Dogecoin. He did mention it once. I think it was during the news update on SNL. But since then, I mean, Dogecoin is down, like, 80%. Did he talk at all specifically about Doge yet today? And also, I'm curious if there is some sort of a timeline as to when Tesla is going to accept Bitcoin as payment again.

ZACK GUZMAN: He definitely talked a bit about Doge, Alexis. And we talk so much about kind of his reasoning. And it baffles a lot of people in the crypto community as to why he's so excited about it. As he laid out, there's kind of that theory there around focusing in on, you know, the most entertaining pieces will win out in a sector. And to him, he compares-- or he combines not just the most entertaining, but also the most ironic, noting that Dogecoin was created as a joke to basically make fun of the rest of the crypto space.

And he says that's a piece of why he's so bullish on Dogecoin and how ironic it would be that that would be the one to knock Bitcoin off its path there, specifically in the transaction space. So still putting his eggs in that basket, perhaps behind the humor of it all. And he enjoyed that, but also, as we talk about Tesla's timeline for where it goes in accepting that, he has been pretty vocal about setting the parameters that he wants to see, which includes more than half of the Bitcoin network using sustainable energy and not necessarily that being the threshold that it has to meet, but at least coming close, as well as a trend towards more renewable energy.

And Cathie Wood and Jack Dorsey were quick to highlight that that has been the case as of late. Elon Musk conceding that those coal-powered miners in China have been clamped down on. And we've seen that come off the network. So he did admit that it does look like Tesla will be returning to accepting Bitcoin at some point in the near future. He didn't exactly give a date in his mind, saying that he wants to do a little bit more due diligence there. But overall, you look at the moves today, and investors clearly are kind of cheering some of the takeaways thus far and the tone coming from Elon Musk there, back potentially on seeing the net positives here for Bitcoin.

One of the key things that all three panelists there have been talking about is the net positives that when it comes to Bitcoin kind of supporting people around the globe, maybe less so here in the US, but looking at other countries dealing with hyperinflation, as well as maybe authoritative regimes, they're turning to Bitcoin as kind of a freer currency, and investors cheering maybe some of the progress being made in convincing Elon Musk to see the light there.

KRISTIN MYERS: All right, Zack Guzman breaking down the updates from the B Conference. Thank you so much, Zack.