Musk, market manipulation and the rhyme of the dotcom bubble

 2021 is so 2021.

First, we have the pandemic.

Second, we have a trumped-up Trump impeachment (he maybe more hurt by the news his twitter ban is now permanent). 

Thirdly, we have Elon Musk.

Now, like him or loathe him, Elon is a very astute man when it comes to creating hype and monetising it. Firstly he helped build paypal, now a fundamental core of internet transactions. Then a whole load of hype and tech based companies, including the very successful Space X, less successful Hyper-Loop and of course the enigma that is Tesla. 

Tesla, via a great product and just incredible amounts of hope and hype, has made Elon the richest man in the world on paper. He has many devoted fans who hang off his every tweet. And he has a strong personality, not a very nice one to judge by his ex’s comments, but a strong one. 

And now this week he has pushed Tesla and his own money into Bitcoins and Doge coins. Tesla taking $1.5 billion in BTC has pushed it upwards towards $50,000 per coin. (Doge is a pure fantasy coin that has limitless amounts, pushing it is a pure hype meme in the form of a Ponzi scheme). Saying that Tesla will accept BTC payments for its products though is very smart. Once BTC gains acceptance as a currency with some use other than an electronic store of value, it become a more valuable item. 

Already, using the hype generated by his action, Tesla has made more money on paper from BTC investment than it ever has on selling its nice but very expensive cars. 

How the US financial regulators must be having nightmares, they are now duelling with the world’s richest man and his army of fans, all the while trying to stop another reverse robinhood diminution of retail investors funds. 

It is so 2021, social media, dumb money released by the Lockdowns effectively, the power of hype and ponzi all wrapped up for the Regulators. So tempting to call this the late stage bubble. It certainly feels like February 2001 again. But this time, the market is so liquid due to all the Central Bank money printing, the blow-off phase may last for months yet?