Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk reiterated his support for the Dogecoin cryptocurrency, albeit evasively, at this year's Qatar Economic Forum in Doha.
“I intend to personally support Dogecoin because I know a lot of people who are not that wealthy who have encouraged me to buy and support Dogecoin so I am responding to those people,” he said in a video interview with Bloomberg. News Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait.
JUST IN: "I have never said that people should invest in crypto. In the case of Tesla, SpaceX, myself, we all did buy some Bitcoin, but it's a small percentage of our total cash assets," says Elon Musk https://t.co/BLcp2WIvub #QatarEconomicForum #منتدى_قطر_الاقتصادي pic.twitter.com/R1ZfRGxWBR
— Bloomberg Live (@BloombergLive) June 21, 2022
Musk stated in the interview that it was his own employees who asked him to defend Dogecoin, or in his words: “only people when I walk by the SpaceX or Tesla factory, they asked me to support Dogecoin, so I'm doing it.”
Musk, who has a net worth of more than a fifth of a trillion dollars, was this year estimated to be the richest man in the world by Forbes. He said he personally owns Dogecoin, and his Twitter pronouncements about the cryptocurrency have often driven up its price. Earlier this year, he announced that Tesla and SpaceX will accept Dogecoin payments for some goods. This week, Bloomberg reported that Elon Musk, Tesla and SpaceX are facing a $258 billion lawsuit that alleges Musk was part of an extortion scheme to support cryptocurrency.
“I never said people should invest in cryptocurrencies,” Musk told the Qatar Economic Forum. He added that “SpaceX, Tesla and I did buy some Bitcoin, but it’s a small percentage of our total cash assets, so it’s not that significant.”
