Tech tycoon and Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE) proponent Elon Musk revealed that he privately owns cryptocurrencies, with most of his holdings being "by far Bitcoin and them some Doge and some Ether."
What Happened: During Wednesday's highly anticipated The B Word conference, Musk suggested that he owns significantly more Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) than Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) and Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE).
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"If the price of BTC goes down, I lose money," he added.
Musk said that he does not plan at the moment to increase Tesla's (NASDAQ: TSLA) involvement with a network that pollutes the environment through coal-powered mining farms, especially in China.
The statement confirms previous rumors suggesting that he was pressured by shareholders to cut Tesla's ties with Bitcoin to avoid damaging the firm's "green credentials."
What Else: Despite all of this, the opinions that Musk shared about Bitcoin during the conference were mostly positive. He seems to believe that the leading cryptocurrency has the potential to help free the financial system, which he views as a data system, from the data errors provided by fraud and government interference.
He pointed out how Bitcoin's decentralization and permissionless nature diminishes government control.
"If you hate corporations, you should really hate the government," Musk referred to people who criticize corporations.
And, of course, Musk also spoke kindly of his pupil Dogecoin and complimented its community for being irreverent, not taking itself too seriously, having great memes, and loving dogs.
Price Action: Bitcoin is currently trading at about $31,700, gaining 6.3% over the last 24 hours, while Dogecoin is up by 9.5%, trading at $0.1882.
Ethereum gained 8.3%, trading at about $1,950 at press time.
Photo: NVIDIA Corporation via Flickr