Survey: Elon Musk’s tweets shaped investors’ views on Bitcoin’s environmental footprint

Researchers at Investing.com, following the survey, concluded that Elon Musk’s tweets about Bitcoin mining’s environmental impact influenced crypto investors’ views of digital gold.

Nearly half (49%) of the 1,103 American respondents said that ‘dirty’ mining repels them from investing in digital assets. About 70% of participants preferred investments in a more environmentally friendly cryptocurrency than Bitcoin.

About 30% of respondents sold digital gold in May 2021. One in five linked their decision to Musk’s criticism of Bitcoin. More than a third of those surveyed (36%) were unaware of the negative environmental impact of mining Bitcoin before the tweets from the head of Tesla.

“As an asset whose price is largely driven by sentiment and impulses, Bitcoin will have difficulty recovering,” noted Jesse Cohen, an Investing.com analyst.

When asked about Musk’s influence on cryptocurrency price manipulation, more than half (51%) of respondents said that the head of Tesla has ‘too much power’. In total, 24% of respondents do not believe that the billionaire has significant influence on the crypto industry.

Investors also labeled Musk’s tweets as ‘annoying’ (33%), ‘unfair’ (22%), and ‘entertaining’ (27%).

At the end of May the billionaire discussed with miners the prospects of ‘green’ mining of Bitcoin. Earlier in the same month, Musk said that Tesla paused accepting Bitcoin for vehicle purchases, sending the asset’s price tumbling.

Earlier, discontented users created the token FUCKELON. Musk was also the target of a ‘war’ declared on his behalf by the hacker group Anonymous.

Erik Nurm, founder of the DeFi platform CoinSwap, said that Tesla chief’s tweets are dangerous for investors, but beneficial for the industry.

Follow ForkLog’s Bitcoin news on our Telegram — cryptocurrency news, prices and analysis.