‘Tesla insider’ who hinted at Bitcoin bet weeks ago claims he is a prankster

The original Reddit post

Credit: Reddit

After the post received widespread attention, its author, who identified himself as Hendrik, told The New York Post that he has no inside information about Tesla. 

“If you want to know the truth: I am a young German guy and I was on Acid while I did this post in the last month,” he said. “I had this afflatus that Elon is going to buy Bitcoin, so I created this trollpost.”

Hendrik claims he first suspected Tesla would invest in Bitcoin after seeing a Twitter conversation between Musk and Michael Saylor, the CEO MicroStrategy — a major investor in Bitcoin.

He has since edited his initial post to delete his claim of inside information.

Hendrik’s original Reddit post was seen as significant because, if accurate, it would have suggested that Tesla could have started buying Bitcoin in late December. Tesla said it started purchasing bitcoin in January.

Elon Musk has been charging up Bitcoin's value

Reddit posters have this week revisited the post in the light of Tesla’s disclosure. "Thanks for the heads up Elon," noted one poster, Valoured, on Tuesday. "Send me a PM (Private Message) before you make your next move please."

The power of social media users on forums such as Reddit’s WallStreetBets to band together and move prices has come into focus in recent weeks, after a surge of retail buying helped fuel wild rides in shares of GameStop and other so-called “meme stocks”.

A well-known supporter of cryptocurrencies, Musk has weighed in regularly on the past month’s frenzy in retail investment, also driving up prices of the meme-based digital currency Dogecoin.

Musk said a week ago that bitcoin was "on the verge" of being more widely accepted among investors, and in December asked if it was possible to do large transactions in the currency.

In late January, the billionaire changed the bio of his Twitter account, which has 46 million followers, to include #bitcoin.

Some commentators have suggested the US Securities and Exchange Commission could seek clarification from Musk over whether Tesla already owned Bitcoin when his intervention on social media sent prices surging.