Elon Musk Says He's Leaving Twitter 'for a While'

Elon Musk is taking an indefinite break from Twitter. Soon after endorsing bitcoin in his bio on the social media site, resulting in a boost of up to 20% in its value, the Tesla CEO announced he was "off Twitter for a while" Tuesday morning. Musk didn't offer up an explanation as to why he decided to take a break from the social media platform, having most recently tweeted about Tesla's production plant plans in Berlin, SpaceX and the GameStop stock controversy that first started on Reddit.

Sunday, Musk also clarified in a Clubhouse interview that his support of the meme cryptocurrency dogecoin is "just meant to be jokes," as he is an advocate of bitcoin, which he confirmed last week. with his Twitter bio, which now simply reads, "#bitcoin." Following the change, the price of the cryptocurrency surged from around $32,000 to $37,000, reported Newsweek. Musk's joking support of dogecoin in December of last year spiked the price of the cryptocurrency about 20% after he tweeted, "One word: Doge." He had previously tweeted in July that the success of the currency was "inevitable."

Off Twitter for a while

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 2, 2021

Musk clarified Sunday, however, that he is merely joking when he posts such fervid support of dogecoin. "Occasionally I make jokes about dogecoin, but they are really just meant to be jokes," he said, noting that as dogecoin was "made as a joke to make fun of cryptocurrencies," he could be forced to eat his words, as "fate loves irony." He added: "Arguably the most entertaining outcome and the most ironic outcome would be dogecoin becomes the currency of earth in the future."

Musk's Twitter activity has previously landed him in hot water with the Securities and Exchange Commission. When he tweeted in August 2018 about a potential deal that would have made Tesla a private company, shares surged. Weeks later, Musk confirmed Tesla would continue to be publicly traded, but many accused him of manipulating the market using social media. Months later, he would get in trouble with the SEC once again over a tweet about Tesla manufacturing and had to settle with the commission for $40 million. The settlement also included more restrictions on what Musk was allowed to tweet about Tesla in an attempt to prevent that kind of situation from happening again. Two years ago, Musk declared he was thinking about deleting his account but has not followed through.