Who is Elon Musk and why does he have so much influence on crypto?

Who is Elon Musk?

Elon Reeve Musk is a South African American entrepreneur and ended 2025 as the richest person in the world. He was born on June 28, 1971 in Pretoria, South Africa. Elon Musk was 17 years old when he moved to Canada and four years later he moved to the United States, where he studied at the University of Pennsylvania. Musk holds multiple nationalities, namely American, South African and Canadian. Today, he lives in Austin, Texas.

Elon Musk is connected to several major technology companies in different roles, but is best known as the CEO of Tesla and as the founder and top executive of SpaceX. In addition, he is the owner of X (formerly Twitter) and is involved with companies such as Neuralink, xAI and The Boring Company. He is also mentioned as a co-founder of OpenAI. Musk regularly makes the news because of his public views on cryptocurrencies. In the past, this has had an effect on price movements of Bitcoin and Dogecoin.

Key takeaways

• Musk is a tech entrepreneur and was the richest man in the world in 2025.
• He previously built online payment companies such as Zip2 and PayPal.
• His statements mainly influenced Bitcoin and Dogecoin sentiment.
• Tesla bought $1.5 billion worth of BTC in 2021 and later stopped accepting BTC payments.
• Musk publicly confirmed that he personally owns Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin.

How did Elon Musk's career start?

Elon Musk started programming at a young age and created a computer game at the age of 12 with which he earned money. His first major business success came with Zip2, a software company that offered digital city maps and business information. He sold the company in 1999 to Compaq for 307 million dollars.

He then started an online payment service called X.com, which would eventually grow into PayPal. In 2002, PayPal was sold to eBay for 1.5 billion dollars. This background in online payments explains why Musk later often appears in crypto discussions. Cryptocurrencies are regularly seen as the next step in digital value transfer, based on peer-to-peer transactions and therefore without a central payment service.

What does Elon Musk have to do with crypto?

Musk is mainly relevant to crypto because his reach is large and his statements are often widely picked up. Especially with Dogecoin, which relies heavily on community and sentiment, hints or tweets can quickly lead to sudden price movements. In addition, Musk is building global internet infrastructure via satellites with Starlink. This is not a crypto project, but broad access to the internet is a prerequisite for the use of crypto and digital payments.

2014: The first public comments about Bitcoin

In March 2014, Musk responded to a question about crypto with a remark that referred to the idea that Satoshi Nakamoto would have been 'discovered'. Later that year, he said that Bitcoin is probably a good thing, but that it could also be used for illegal transactions. He also said during that period that he did not own any Bitcoin.

2017: "Elon Musk is Satoshi"

During the 2017 bull market, an article was published claiming that Musk had likely invented Bitcoin and therefore would be Satoshi Nakamoto. Musk denied this himself and said that he once received a small amount of BTC, but no longer knew where it had gone.

2018: Scams abusing Musk's name

In 2018, there were several scammers who used Musk's name via hacked accounts to promote fake crypto giveaways. All victims together are said to have lost approximately 157,000 dollars before it was stopped.

2019: Musk became more serious about Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin

Elon Musk became somewhat more serious and positive about crypto from a technological perspective. For example, he called the structure of Bitcoin "brilliant" and saw "some merit" in Ethereum. In the same year, he tweeted for the first time that Dogecoin might be his favorite cryptocurrency. This caused an immediate price increase for Dogecoin.

2020: Dogecoin increasingly becomes a "tweet asset"

In 2020, Musk's tweeting behavior caused the Dogecoin price to move more frequently. Even short tweets about Dogecoin already led to price movements. As a result, Dogecoin increasingly came to be seen as a coin that is extra sensitive to news, memes and social media sentiment.

2021: Tesla enters Bitcoin and the Dogecoin hype reaches a peak

In 2021, Tesla announced that it had invested 1.5 billion dollars in Bitcoin and that it would accept Bitcoin as a payment method for Tesla cars. But not long after, Tesla stopped accepting Bitcoin due to concerns about the environmental impact of Bitcoin mining.

In the same year, the Dogecoin hype reached a peak. In the run-up to an appearance by Elon Musk on Saturday Night Live, a world-famous television show from the United States, the price rose sharply. After a remark by him that Dogecoin is a "hustle", the price quickly dropped again. Tesla accepts Dogecoin for merchandise and Musk sees Dogecoin as a potential payment currency due to the low transaction costs and the simplicity of the cryptocurrency.

2022: Musk acquires Twitter

In 2022, Musk acquired Twitter for 44 billion dollars and changed the name of the platform to X. Since then, there has been a lot of discussion about a possible crypto integration within X, with Dogecoin being mentioned by many people as a logical candidate.

2024: Dogecoin lawsuit ends

In 2024, the legal dispute surrounding Musk's crypto influence came to an end. A group of investors had sued Musk and Tesla over alleged price manipulation around Dogecoin via tweets and media appearances. The case was dismissed by the judge and later the appeal was also withdrawn by the plaintiffs themselves. As a result, there were no consequences for Musk and Tesla.

2025: D.O.G.E. and FASB rules make crypto visible on corporate balance sheets

Under President Donald Trump, the Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E.) was established on January 20, 2025 via an executive order, with Elon Musk as one of the faces of the initiative. Musk stepped down from his role in May 2025, and later DOGE was reportedly quietly dismantled, with many tasks taken over by other parts of the government.

The new FASB rules make it possible for companies to report certain crypto assets at fair market value, making positions on corporate balance sheets more visible. According to available data, Tesla held approximately 11,509 BTC as of December 31, 2024, with a value of around $1.076 billion. In public statements, Musk also indicated that both Tesla and SpaceX own Bitcoin.

Which crypto does Musk personally own?

Elon Musk has publicly confirmed that he owns three cryptocurrencies: Dogecoin (DOGE), Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). There are no other coins that he has publicly confirmed; nothing concrete is known about any other holdings. How much of each crypto he personally owns is not known. This mix of cryptocurrencies is notable because it includes three different types of crypto: Bitcoin as a store of value, Ethereum as a technological platform and Dogecoin as a community and payment coin.

How much money does Elon Musk have?

Elon Musk's net worth is estimated daily by wealth indices such as the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires and the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, and fluctuates strongly because it is mainly linked to the valuation of his stakes in companies such as Tesla and SpaceX. In 2025, he topped those rankings and in October 2025 he even reached an estimated net worth of around $500 billion as the first person ever. This made him the first half-trillionaire. At the end of 2025, Bloomberg listed his net worth at approximately $630 billion and according to that index he remained the richest person in the world.

Final thoughts

Elon Musk is especially interesting for crypto because with a single statement or action he can shift sentiment. With Bitcoin, this was visible through Tesla: first the large purchase and the acceptance of BTC, then the decision to stop BTC payments due to concerns about mining and environmental impact. With Dogecoin, it is even clearer: that coin moves extra strongly on community and hype, and Musk has fueled that for years. At the same time, he has personally confirmed that he owns BTC, ETH and DOGE, which gives his opinion extra weight for many people. In short, Musk does not single-handedly determine the market, but he can cause sudden movements and extra volatility, especially in coins where sentiment is more important than fundamentals.