What is Stop Elon? Musk New Crypto Surge After Bitcoin Rebound

What is Stop Elon? Musk New Crypto Surge After Bitcoin Rebound

As part of the backlash against Elon Musk, the value of a cryptocurrency called StopElon rose 1,800% in just 24 hours.

The CEOs of Tesla and SpaceX were considered allies by cryptocurrency devotees, but when Musk revealed last week that Tesla would not accept payments in Bitcoin, some changed their minds. And now they are fighting back by launching their own protest cryptocurrency with the ultimate goal of seizing control of Tesla.

StopElon appeared as a token minted on the Binance smartchain, rising in value from $0.0000019 to $0.00003679 in the past 24 hours.

Given that one can buy 27,180 STOPELON for US$1, one could argue that it is still worth very little. Still, as Dogecoin enthusiasts can attest, when it comes to investing, it is not the size of the price of an individual coin that matters as much as the profit.

With a market capitalization of over $17 million after two days, StopElon has already begun to accumulate broad value; StopElon's total supply is now 50% of the coins available for purchase, 40% already burned and removed from circulation, and 5% each for developers' wallets and marketing % each are being used.

StopElon's official website describes the project's ambitious, but appropriately memetic, goals, which include generating enough value to buy Tesla stock and eventually purchase full rights to Tesla.

Prior to last week's Tesla news, Dogecoin-loving Musk was seen as an incredibly influential, meme-sharing billionaire that crypto enthusiasts could count as their own. Tesla's purchase of $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin (BTC) in January and its move to accept cryptocurrencies to pay for electric cars seemed to affirm that view.

Last week, however, Musk revealed that Tesla had changed its view on Bitcoin due to the environmental impact of its energy-intensive mining model. Tesla will no longer accept BTC as payment and will wait to trade more once "mining moves to more sustainable energy."

Just as Tesla's initial January announcement sent the price of bitcoin soaring, last week's reversal sent its value in the opposite direction. Bitcoin's price fell 22% last week and now stands at about $43,386 (via CoinGecko), with many other top cryptocurrencies following suit.

Musk later tweeted that he believes in the potential of cryptocurrencies and is working with Dogecoin's developers to improve transaction efficiency. Not all cryptocurrencies require energy-intensive mining like Bitcoin. Over the weekend, Tom's Guide introduced five alternative coins that are greener by design, including Nano (NANO) and Chia (XCH).

Disclosure: The author of this article held less than 1 BTC at the time of publication.

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