Bitcoin surges after comments by Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey

Comments by high-profile billionaires have helped cryptocurrency values surge just a week after a sell-off sparked by fears of the Delta covid variant.

Bitcoin has soared close to $40,000 ($A54,000) after billionaires including Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos suggested the party wasn’t over yet for cryptocurrency.

The unit leapt 15 per cent in Asian trade to a one-month high at $39,681 ($A53,832), buoyed by reports that US retail titan Amazon was mulling the use of crypto technology and supportive tweets from Tesla.

Ethereum and dogecoin also soared 7.3 per cent and 11 per cent respectively, over the past 24 hours, according to data from CoinDesk.

Bitcoin has soared after support from some leading tech billionaires.

Ethereum reached $US2330 ($A3160). Dogecoin was last trading at about 20 cents per coin, giving it a $US28.8 billion ($A39 billion) market cap.

Speculation that “Amazon may be preparing to accept digital coins as payment” may have played a role in the rally, according to Jeffrey Halley, a senior market analyst for Asia Pacific at Oanda.

The conjecture was prompted by a job posting on Amazon’s website for a “digital currency and blockchain product lead.”

According to the job description — which was widely reported in various media outlets late last week — the executive would be expected to help Amazon’s payments team develop “new capabilities.”

Amazon, founded by Jeff Bezos, has posted an ad that suggests a move into accepting cryptocurrencies.

Musk, who is known to be able to move markets, tweeted over the weekend that “dogecoin is money”.

Last week, Musk said that Tesla and SpaceX both own bitcoin and that the only major personal investments he had outside of his companies were in bitcoin, ethereum and dogecoin.

“The bulls are back in town, and this time it seems like they are back with a vengeance,” said AvaTrade analyst Naeem Aslam.

“One of the biggest events was (Tesla boss) Elon Musk once again showing support for bitcoin and indicating the fact that Tesla would likely start accepting bitcoin again.”

Elon Musk has thrown his weight behind bitcoin.

Dogecoin plummeted in May after Musk appeared on Saturday Night Live and called it a “hustle.”

It came after he said Tesla would stop accepting bitcoin as payment because of the huge amount of energy used to mine it, causing the price to fall.

Last week, however, Musk changed his tune and said Tesla would start accepting payments of the cryptocurrency again when around half of the power used to mine bitcoin comes from clean energy sources.

“Cryptocurrencies were given a helping hand by their old friend Elon Musk … and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Elon rode to the rescue,” Craig Erlam, a senior analyst at Oanda, wrote in a note over the weekend. “The near-term outlook is looking a little brighter for cryptos.”

CEO of Twitter Jack Dorsey says cryptocurrency is a major part of Twitter’s forward strategy.

Twitter’s Dorsey also threw his support behind cryptocurrencies last week, saying bitcoin could become a major part of Twitter’s strategy going forward.

“There are three trends relevant to Twitter and you, our shareholders: AI, decentralisation and the internet finally having access to a global native currency in bitcoin,” Dorsey said on an earnings call last Thursday. “We intend to lead the way in each.”

Dorsey said that when it came to the concept of “the internet having native currency … bitcoin probably is the best.”

“That’s what I think we should really focus on. If the internet has a native currency, a global currency, we are able to move so much faster with products such as super follows, commerce, subscription, tip jar, and we can reach every single person on the planet because of that instead of going down (a) … market-by-market approach,” he said, noting that other social networks, such as Facebook (FB), had also jumped into the space.

“I think this is a big part of our future,” he said. “There’s an obvious need for this and appreciation for it.”

Cryptocurrencies rallied just a week after they were hit by a major sell-off. Bitcoin is still well off the record near $US65,000 ($A88,000) seen in April.

Originally published as Bitcoin surges after comments by Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey