For the longest time, Bitcoin has been branded “magical internet money” by both its critics and proponents.
While this moniker is mostly used in a joking context, the crypto community got an injection of magic last week when J.K. Rowling — the billionaire author behind the young-adult novel series “Harry Potter” — talked about Bitcoin for the first time.
Although Rowling first seemed genuinely interested in cryptocurrency, her interest quickly turned into trolling as she tried to grapple with the barrage of BTC-related comments she was receiving.
“People are now explaining Bitcoin to me, and honestly, it’s blah blah blah collectibles (My Little Pony?) blah blah blah computers (got one of those) blah blah blah crypto (sounds creepy) blah blah blah understand the risk (I don’t, though.),” Rowling wrote, trolling the cryptocurrency community after they spent hours trying to convince her of BTC.
While some saw this as a blow to crypto in that Rowling made the industry look foolish and immature, there’s a silver lining to the famous author’s foray into Crypto Twitter.
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J.K. Rowling’s Bitcoin Tirade Has a Silver Lining
As prominent Bitcoin commentator and proponent Vijay Boyapati pointed out, Rowling may not understand Bitcoin but she “spent the last few days giving many of her 14.6 million followers their first exposure to it.”
This week I'm following @jk_rowling. She professes not to understand #Bitcoin but she has spent the last few days giving many of her 14.6 million followers their first exposure to it. Thank you.https://t.co/Qr0vJJB5Lg
— Vijay Boyapati 🦢 (@real_vijay) May 18, 2020
Indeed, Rowling’s two-dozen or so tweets on Bitcoin have garnered thousands of likes each and equally as many comments, signaling that hundreds of thousands were recently exposed to the cryptocurrency community by the author alone.
Whether or not Rowling’s followers will be converted into BTC holders, though, remains to be seen.
The Other Silver Lining
This wasn’t the only silver lining that Rowling’s recent interactions with the cryptocurrency community created.
While Elon Musk — the chief executive of Tesla and someone who likes to talk cryptocurrency on occasion — was not tagged in any of Rowling’s Bitcoin tweets, he decided to join the conversation.
Responding to the author’s comment that Bitcoin is a whole bunch of “blah blah blah,” Musk replied:
“Pretty much, although massive currency issuance by govt central banks is making Bitcoin Internet money look solid by comparison.”
Pretty much, although massive currency issuance by govt central banks is making Bitcoin Internet 👻 money look solid by comparison
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 15, 2020
The legendary billionaire entrepreneur did assert, however, that he still only owns around $2,500 worth of the asset.
Though, his comment highlights a larger narrative forming in investment circles and in the media on crypto: BTCis becoming more valuable — both intrinsically and actually — due to central banks and governments printing trillions of dollars in response to the economic impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak.
As hedge fund investor Paul Tudor Jones recently explained:
“Every day that goes by that bitcoin survives, the trust in it will go up… If you take cash, on the other hand, and you think about it from a purchasing power standpoint, if you own cash in the world today, you know your central bank has an avowed goal of depreciating its value 2% per year.”
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