Bitcoin, Ether see brief spike after Musk says he isn't selling

[SINGAPORE] Bitcoin, Ether and Dogecoin got a quick boost on Monday (Mar 14) after Elon Musk tweeted that he owns the digital tokens and isn't planning to sell.

Bitcoin, which has fallen as much as 2.9 per cent before Musk's tweet, briefly erased losses before retreating again. Ether was up as much as 2.3 per cent before giving up some gains. Dogecoin's 3.8 per cent gain over the past hour was the biggest among cryptocurrencies tracked by CoinGecko.

Musk, the world's richest person and the chief executive officer of Tesla Inc, is no stranger to social-media posts on cryptocurrencies. Last May he said he hasn't "and won't" sell any Dogecoin, a token created in 2013 as a joke and for which he'd become a proponent. In October, Musk said he owns Bitcoin, Ether and Dogecoin.

This time around, he had posted a question on Twitter about the likely rate of inflation over the next few years. Michael Saylor, the chief executive officer of MicroStrategy Inc and a prominent Bitcoin bull, replied: "Weaker currencies will collapse, and the flight of capital from cash, debt, & value stocks to scarce property like #bitcoin will intensify."

"It is not entirely unpredictable that you would reach that conclusion," Musk retorted.

MicroStrategy took a US$147 million impairment charge for the fourth quarter as Bitcoin's price drop forced the company to write down its holding. BLOOMBERG