Members of the media may directly contact the following expert:
Mariam Humayun (English only)
Assistant Professor of Marketing, Telfer School of Management
“This is a natural fit for Elon Musk and the techno-utopianism that he embodies as he caters to the target market for his own brands, be it Tesla, Cybertruck, or SpaceX. There are natural affinities between Bitcoin and Tesla since both brands have a degree of irreverence towards institutions. Elon Musk is often seen as the outsider on the inside and Bitcoin has always been on the fringe until recently. The Bitcoin community has some strong Elon Musk fans, from the younger generation to those with a strong technological leaning. This development reflects how social media can give legitimacy to people like Elon, whose one tweet can dramatically shift markets.
Elon Musk is the meme king, and – if anything – cryptocurrencies operate in a memefied ecosystem. Elon is not the first poster boy for Bitcoin (Edward Snowden, Jack Dorsey, and more have been there) but he is great at using memes and crises to command attention. This also connects to the recent GameStop traders raiding Wall Street - in some ways, Elon is one of the signals for the swarm hive mind.”
Florian Martin-Bariteau (French only)
Associate Professor of Law and Technology, Faculty of Law - Common Law section; and Director, Centre for Law, Technology and Society.
[email protected]