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Comment by tom_mellior | Hacker News Reader

I'm with you on everything except the Bitcoin bit. I think he knew exactly that (a) it's a highly speculative asset, and (b) he has enough rabid fans and general publicity to move the market in exactly the ways that he benefits from.

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That makes it sound like he was doing a cheap pump and dump.

Maybe you're right.

Tesla still has 90% of the Bitcoin they bought.

If his proclamation knocks, say, half the value off Bitcoin, and it stays there, that wasn't a very clever pump and dump, because they kinda skipped the 'dump' part.

They only declare their sales after the fact. There is a chance that Tesla owns no bitcoin at this time. Probably they still do, but...

Then won't they get in trouble? The most recent statement directly says they have not sold any, just stopping accepting payments in it.

That would be an explicit lie then, something the SEC has jurisdiction over? (I'm not actually sure)

Is the SEC regulating bitcoin now? No. so they couldn't do a thing. Bitcoin isn't a security.

SEC doesn't regulate Bitcoin.

SEC does regulate stocks of companies like Tesla whose dealings in Bitcoin could affect said stock price.

That has never stopped Elon before! "funding secured"

I think the statement says they will not be selling any in the future.

Perhaps it's a chump and pump. Bring down the value to buy the dip.

I'll say again, it makes no sense for Elon Musk to do a cheap pump and dump. He's worth over $100 billion. The hundreds of millions he might make from a pump and dump are literally a rounding error to him

A pump and dump gets him actual cash, as opposed to capital tied up in shares. But more importantly, every move gets him the press coverage he craves.

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