Elon Musk says he supports cryptocurrency in a ‘battle’ with fiat money, like government-backed coins and bills

Elon Musk.

Britta Pedersen-Pool/Getty Images

Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted his support for crypto over fiat money on Saturday, with Bitcoin prices rising on the sentiment.

"The true battle is between fiat and crypto," Musk tweeted in response to a Twitter user asking him what he thinks about people who are "angry at him because of crypto." "On balance, I support the latter."

-Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 22, 2021

Fiat money, which is the kind of currency used by most modern economies, is not backed by a physical commodity like gold. Instead the currency — like bills or coins– is backed by the issuing government. The dollar, euro and yen are fiat currencies.

Bitcoin rose to over $38,370 shortly after Musk's tweet. The cryptocurrency has recently seen volatile price fluctuations after Musk said Tesla would stop accepting Bitcoin payments for environmental reasons, and China reiterated that it would "crack down" on Bitcoin mining and trading.

Twitter users familiar with Musk's tweeting habits can likely recall his history of tweeting about cryptocurrencies relative to fiat money. In December 2020, Musk took to Twitter to say that "bitcoin is almost as bs as fiat money." But in February, he clarified this comment, tweeting: "when fiat currency has negative real interest, only a fool wouldn't look elsewhere. Bitcoin is almost as bs as fiat money. The key word is 'almost.'"

Musk's belief in crypto also dominated his recent SNL appearance on May 8 where he called dogecoin the "future of currency" and an "unstoppable financial vehicle that's going to take over the world."