Barstool Sports founder David Portnoy criticized Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk for tanking Bitcoin (BTC) and sending Dogecoin (DOGE) up in a video he tweeted Wednesday.
What Happened Portnoy took to Twitter in what he described as an “Emergency Press Conference.”
“Elon Musk just tried to tank Bitcoin,” said Portnoy — adding “The same Elon Musk who had Bitcoin on Tesla’s spreadsheet and their balance sheet so Tesla can show profit at the end of the quarter because they aren’t selling cars now suddenly Bitcoin is bad.”
The celebrity blogger took aim at Musk and called him out on moving cryptocurrency markets.
“The same guy’s been pulling the levers like he’s the Wizard of Oz on crypto and everyone following his every move — he’s sending Dogecoin up, he’s sending Bitcoin down. This is bullsh*t.”
See also: How to Buy Dogecoin (DOGE)
On Wednesday, Musk announced that Tesla would no longer accept BTC for vehicle purchases citing “rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels” used for both mining and transactions.
Musk also made it known that Bitcoin paid to Tesla would be retained and not converted to fiat currency.
The apex cryptocurrency by market capitalization took a plunge after Musk’s announcement falling as low as $46,980.02 during intraday trading. At press time, BTC traded 12.19% lower at $50,260.52 on a 24-hour basis.
Musk often discusses DOGE, a Shiba Inu-themed cryptocurrency, which traded 13.02% lower at $0.43. DOGE touched an intra-day low of $0.36 on Thursday.
Why It Matters: Portnoy’s criticism was not limited to cryptocurrencies. He also brought up a May 2020 tweet that sent Tesla stock spiraling downwards. At the time, Musk had tweeted, “Tesla stock price is too high imo [in my opinion].”
The Barstool Sports founder said that even after the tweet he remained an “Elon fanboy.”
Last month, Portnoy and Musk exchanged tweets after Tesla sold $272 million of Bitcoin, a disclosure made in the company’s first-quarter earnings report.
Portnoy had alleged after the news came out that Musk “pumps” BTC and then “dumps it and make[s] a fortune.”
Musk had denied the allegations saying that Tesla sold 10% of its holdings “essentially to prove liquidity of Bitcoin as an alternative to holding cash on balance sheet.
Portnoy called out Musk for being unreliable and cited the example of Penn National Gaming, Inc PENN — an investor in Barstool Sports. He said that those who put their money in Penn could be sure of his conduct and “put their heads on little pillows and know that I’d never f**king do that.”
“The number one rule of investing is you better trust whoever you are investing in, whoever is running that company because [there are] guys like Elon who apparently do not give a f**k.”
See Also: Elon Musk's Dogecoin Tweets Worry Crypto Community — Situation 'Seriously Damaging'
Portnoy was highly critical of Musk’s alleged fickleness. “Elon you have a responsibility when one second you say to buy something and the next second you don’t. That’s playing with people’s futures, their fortunes.”
“This move Elon’s doing — up and down and changing markets, shady sh*t, shady sh*t” exclaimed Portnoy.
Price Action: Tesla shares closed nearly 4.4% lower at $589.89 in Wednesday's regular trading and fell another 1.25% to $582.50 in the after-hours session.
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