An analyst who forecasted the apex cryptocurrency’s rise to $50,000 levels last year said Thursday that Bitcoin (BTC) has a relatively upper hand compared to Tesla Inc’s TSLA shares.
What Happened: Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Mike McGlone described Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s announcement regarding Tesla’s BTC payments halt as a “curious move” in a tweet, noting that $40,000 was a crucial point for the cryptocurrency.
In a separate tweet, McGlone noted that, while BTC was breaking higher, Tesla shares were declining.
McGlone pointed out that both Tesla and Bitcoin consume a lot of electricity, which is “getting greener and should diminish as a Bitcoin criticism, and extols the defensive benefits of its decentralized computer network.”
At press time, BTC traded 2.6% lower at $49,261.13 over a 24-hour-trailing period. The cryptocurrency has fallen 11.44% in a seven-day period.
Tesla shares closed nearly 3.1% lower at $571.69 in the regular session on Thursday. The automaker’s shares have declined 14.13% over seven days.
Why It Matters: In a note Thursday, McGlone wrote that Tesla suspending Bitcoin payments “doesn’t shake our thesis that the crypto is in early price discovery days on its way to becoming the global digital reserve asset in a world of accelerating digitalization and electrification,” CoinDesk reported.
McGlone noted that electricity is increasingly coming from “solar and wind, which are cost effective.” The analyst called Musk’s remarks “odd” since the automaker’s product “is fed solely by electricity.”
On Thursday, ARK Invest’s Director of Research Brett Winton said BTC’s potential outweighs its energy requirements and termed it a “novel economic institution.”
ARK’s flagship fund — ARK Innovation ETF ARKK — holds both Tesla and cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global Inc’s COIN shares.
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