Who is Elon Musk? Why is this Elon Musk’s favourite cryptocurrency?

Elon Musk rose to global prominence as the CEO of Tesla Inc. (TSLA), the CEO and lead designer of his space business SpaceX, and, most recently, as the world’s richest person.

Musk co-founded PayPal (PYPL), invested early in Tesla, and struck an agreement to take Twitter Inc. (TWTR) private in April 2022.

His accomplishments and personal manner have drawn comparisons to Steve Jobs, Howard Hughes, and Henry Ford, among other colorful tycoons in American history.

As of May 15, 2022, he was the richest person on the planet, with a net worth of $224 billion. Musk passed Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), for the title in 2021.

Let’s look briefly at the life of the man who has scaled the pinnacle of the business world.

Notable Achievements

Musk traveled to California at the age of 24 to obtain a Ph.D. in applied physics at Stanford University. Musk, though, had entrepreneurial fantasies dancing in his head as the Internet exploded and Silicon Valley boomed. He only lasted two days in the Ph.D. program.

X.com

In 1995, with $15,000 and his younger brother Kimbal at his side, Musk started Zip2, a web software company that would help newspapers develop online city guides.

In 1999, Zip2 was acquired by Compaq Computer Corp. for $341 million. Musk used his Zip2 buyout money to create X.com, a fintech venture before that term was in wide circulation.

X.com merged with a money transfer firm called Confinity, and the resulting company came to be known as PayPal. Peter Thiel ousted Musk as PayPal’s CEO before eBay (EBAY) bought the payments company for $1.5 billion, but Musk still profited from the buyout via his 11.7% PayPal stake.  “My proceeds from PayPal after tax were about $180 million,” Musk said in a 2018 interview. “$100 million of that went into SpaceX, $70 million into Tesla and $10 million into SolarCity. And I literally had to borrow money for rent.”

Tesla

Musk became involved with the electric cars venture as an early investor in 2004, ultimately contributing about $6.3 million to begin with and joined the team, including engineer Martin Eberhard, to help run a company then known as Tesla Motors. Following a series of disagreements, Eberhard was ousted in 2007, and an interim CEO was hired until Musk assumed control as CEO and product architect. Under his watch, Tesla has become the world’s most valuable automaker and one of his best-known brands.

In addition to producing electric vehicles, Tesla maintains a robust presence in the solar energy space, thanks to its acquisition of SolarCity. The company currently produces two rechargeable solar batteries. The smaller Powerwall was developed for home backup power and off-the-grid use, while the larger Powerpack is intended for commercial or electric utility grid use.

SpaceX

Musk used most of the proceeds from his PayPal stake to found Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, the rockets developer commonly known as SpaceX. By his own account, Musk spent $100 million to found SpaceX in 2002.

Under Musk’s leadership, SpaceX landed several high-profile contracts with the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the U.S. Air Force to design space launch rockets. Musk has publicized plans to send an astronaut to Mars by 2025 in a collaborative effort with NASA.

Twitter

A frequent poster on the messaging network, Musk disclosed a 9.2% stake in Twitter in April 2022. Twitter responded by offering Musk a seat on the board, which he accepted before declining days later. Musk then sent a “bear hug” letter to Twitter’s board proposing to buy the company at $54.20 per share.

Twitter’s board adopted a poison pill provision to discourage Musk from accumulating an even larger stake, but ultimately accepted Musk’s offer after he disclosed $46.5 billion in committed financing for the deal in a securities filing.

Elon Musk and Crypto

Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed publicly during a conference in July 2021 that he owns a few cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin, but he has consistently favored Dogecoin in interviews and social media posts.

After consistently saying in the past that he engaged with Dogecoin’s developers, the 50-year-old entrepreneur did disclose the major reason for his decision to promote Dogecoin last year.

Musk remarked on Twitter, “A lot of individuals I talked to on the manufacturing lines at Tesla or making rockets at SpaceX own Doge.”

“They aren’t financial professionals or techies from Silicon Valley. That’s why I chose to back Doge since it seemed like the people’s cryptocurrency.”

Musk joked in May 2021 that Dogecoin could become a reserve currency in the future.

 “The point is that Dogecoin was created as a joke, primarily to poke fun of cryptocurrency.”

“Fate is a sucker for irony. What would be the most absurd result? The currency that started out as a joke turns into actual money. To the moon and back!”

DISCLAIMER: The Information on this website is provided as general market commentary and does not constitute investment advice. We encourage you to do your own research before investing.

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