If this morning proves anything, it’s that Elon Musk is more monolithic in the crypto world than we ever thought possible. One simple tweet, with no text and a single photo, inadvertently sent an altcoin skyrocketing. The boost was surely unintentional, but goes to show just how willing people are to toss money at something that Musk says.
One photo: a dark and foggy 5 a.m. flick with a SpaceX rocket off in the distance. In the foreground, a large LED sign, reading “STARBASE.”
Musk was obviously excitedly showing off his company’s project. The Starbase launch site, along the Gulf Coast in Texas, is a testing facility for SpaceX rockets. However, Musk has made clear his ambitions to grow the facility into something greater. He wants to make Starbase into a city for SpaceX engineers, technicians and other personnel.
Regardless of what you believe about the project, the tweet is quite clearly a post from an excited Musk who wanted to get his followers rallying around his big vision.
Starbase Crypto Gets an Unintended Pump
However, many investors took it as something else entirely. Maybe the rabid fanbase of Musk’s forgot about the SpaceX project, or maybe they wanted to execute a promotional campaign of sorts for it. There were likely investors of both mindsets behind the pumping of a completely unrelated Starbase (CCC:STAR-USD) crypto after Musk’s tweet.
Starbase the crypto is entirely distinct from Starbase, Texas. The crypto is an Ethereum (CCC:ETH-USD) token with fairly ubiquitous features. It provides somewhat frequent updates to its investors via Twitter, but the Musk tweet has obviously spurred something along. Starbase has tweeted eight times this month, and half of those have been this morning in the midst of the Musk-fueled boom.
The Starbase tweet from Musk is showing just how much sway the billionaire has in the crypto world. If he can cause a exponential gains for a crypto that he likely didn’t even know existed, he’s undoubtedly got more power than anybody else in effecting crypto prices.
STAR is going from a fraction of a cent in the wee hours of the morning to a 6-cent token before noon. Those developers better go spend some money on some SpaceX merch as a “thank you.”
On the date of publication, Brenden Rearick did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
