California, May 17: Elon Musk, the CEO of technological giant Tesla, rejected claims that the company sold previously purchased bitcoins after being accused of manipulating cryptocurrency markets as Bitcoin took a huge plunge on Monday.

Earlier in the day, the price of Bitcoin plummeted by more than 10 per cent to around USD 42,200, erasing more than a third of April historic price. It has been speculated that the volatility was caused by Musks's recent posts on Twitter. Tesla Suspends Vehicle Purchases Using Bitcoin, Confirms CEO Elon Musk via Twitter.

Elon Musk's Tweet

On Sunday evening, a cryptoenthusiast wrote that "Bitcoiners are going to slap themselves next quarter when they find out Tesla dumped the rest of their #Bitcoin holdings." Musk chose to reply to the tweet with a cryptic "Indeed..."

The fact that Tesla founder chose not to outright deny the assumption caused concerns among traders and the cryptocurrency price dropped the next day. Many have since come forward on social media to accuse Musk of manipulating the market, prompting him to respond with another tweet. "To clarify speculation, Tesla has not sold any Bitcoin," he wrote.

This is not the first instance when Musk's tweets influenced the trading. On May 13, Bitcoin price nosedived after Tesla CEO announced in a post that the company will stop accepting cryptocurrency to sell electric cars citing concerns over fossil fuel use during mining. At the lowest, Bitcoin traded at $46,000, but managed to climb back over USD 50,000.

End of April, Musk stated that Tesla sold 10 per cent of its Bitcoin holdings to prove its liquidity as an alternative to holding cash on balance sheet. Recently, Tesla CEO also directly ventured into the cryptocurrency business by backing a meme-inspired Dogecoin.

Thanks to Musks' promotional Twitter campaign, which went as far as pledging to accept Dogecoin payments at his rocket company SpaceX and to launch the "DOGE-1 Mission to the Moon," its price has soared by more than 800% over the last month.

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