10 Tweets That Moved Markets In 2021

The bull and bear markets and everything in between is still driven mostly by comments or activities by Wall Street insiders, including financial analysts, investment strategists and portfolio managers.

But, we can't overlook the impact of social media influencers who can move market sentiment with a single Tweet.

Here are the top tweets that moved the markets so far in 2021.

1. Elon Musk: Bitcoin Rally

Starting on Jan. 29, Tesla CEO Elon Musk drove crypto prices higher when he changed his Twitter bio to only mention #bitcoin. The cryptocurrency then spiked 20% to $38,566. This was merely the beginning of bitcoin’s bull run.

Musk’s tweet on Feb. 18 lent wings to Bitcoin BTC/USD again, sending the crypto past the key $55,000 resistance level the next day.

2. Mark Cuban: Dogecoin

Sure, Musk can be credited in part for the meme-based crypto coin’s rise from below a cent to over 2 cents in January. But, famous investor Mark Cuban’s backing also lifted sentiment for Dogecoin DOGE/USD.

Cuban’s Dogecoin tweet in February sent prices rallying by almost 50% over the next 12 hours.

3. Chamath Palihapitiya: GameStop

Comments from venture capitalist and Virgin Galactic Chairman, Chamath Palihapitiya, added to the GameStop Corp. GME rally.

Within a minute of his tweet on Jan. 26, GameStop’s shares climbed 9.6%. The stock gained a whopping 1,600% in January, leading to one of the biggest short squeezes in history.

Although the explosive surge was sparked by a bunch of messages on Reddit’s WallStreetBets, tweets by social media icons fuelled the rally.

4. Elon Musk: Bitcoin Crash

The withdrawal of Elon Musk’s support lead to a broader decline in the crypto market, which continued for months.

On May 13, Elon Musk tweeted that Tesla Inc TSLA would not accept Bitcoin as payment, leading to a 10% decline in bitcoin prices. Although bitcoin recovered to the $40K range in the first week of August, it was nowhere close to the record high of $64,863 in April.

5. Robert Kiyosaki: Silver

Silver prices gained more than 3% in two days in the first week of August, after Robert Kiyosaki tweeted about the metal.

6. Cyberthreats

News of the White House formulating a new cyberstrategy against ransomware sparked cybersecurity-related discussions on some very important profiles.

Shares of leading cybersecurity solutions provider Fortinet Inc FTNT spiked 2.10% to a new 52-week high of $304.02 on Aug. 4, days after the company launched its sophisticated anti-ransomware product FortiGate 3500F.

7. L Brands: Sexual Harassment Lawsuit

Shares of L Brands Inc. LB rose to $64.71 on July 30, after the company settled a $90 million sexual harassment lawsuit. The news was trending on Twitter throughout the day.

8. SpaceX

Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa tweeted in March calling more people to join him on his journey to the moon via Elon Musk's SpaceX, expected to launch in 2023.

A research note published by Morgan Stanley days later valued SpaceX at $52 billion. Investors eagerly await the IPO of Space Exploration Technologies.

9. Take-Two Interactive

With tweets such as this, shares of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc TTWO shed more than 5% in extended trading on Aug. 3, even after the company reported a quarterly beat earlier that day.

10. Alphabet

Shares of Google parent Alphabet Inc GOOGL climbed from around $2,703 to $2,725 between Aug. 2 and Aug. 5 after tweets about the launches of its independent robotics software company, Intrinsic.