Musk, Cuban, Or Saylor: Who's The Biggest Crypto Influencer? Benzinga Readers Have An Overwhelming Favorite

Benzinga · 10/17 18:57

Billionaire and cryptocurrency founders are among the key influencers who with a single tweet or public comment can significantly move the price of several cryptocurrencies.

A recent Benzinga poll highlights which figures have the most influence when it comes to moving cryptocurrency prices.

What Happened: Despite a recent documentary claiming to uncover the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC), doubts remain over whether the true identity has actually been revealed.

Whether or not Peter Todd is Nakamoto, as the documentary claims, there's a low chance that comments from the developer could move the price of Bitcoin unless the wallet belonging to Nakamoto begins selling the cryptocurrency.

Instead, the price of Bitcoin and other large cryptocurrencies like Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) and Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE) can spike in volatility due to events and comments from other public figures.

"Who do you think is the biggest influencer in the crypto world?" Benzinga recently asked its readers.

Here are the results:

  • Elon Musk: 56%
  • Michael Saylor: 20%
  • Mark Cuban: 9%
  • Vitalik Buterin: 9%
  • Jack Dorsey: 6%

Musk, who is the CEO of Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) wins the poll by a significant margin. The billionaire, who is currently the world's richest man, was instrumental in Tesla adding Bitcoin to its balance sheet in 2021.

Musk has also been influential in price spikes for Dogecoin, a meme cryptocurrency he has often embraced in social media posts. Dogecoin saw spikes several times in 2020 and 2021 when Musk mentioned the cryptocurrency.

Dogecoin hit an all-time high of $0.7376 on May 8, 2021, the date which Musk appeared on "Saturday Night Live" and publicly discussed Dogecoin in a skit.

While Dogecoin has fallen from all-time highs over the years, the coin continues to see volatility related to Musk's comments on cryptocurrency and the community seeing a potential for Dogecoin to be implemented as a payment option on social media platform X in the future.

You may not be a billionaire like Mark Cuban, but you can uncover hidden gems in the stock market using our proprietary data and pattern recognition — check out five stocks flying under the radar that deserve your attention.

Why It's Important: Musk beat out several other notable individuals attached to cryptocurrency in the poll.

Saylor is the co-founder of MicroStrategy Inc. (NASDAQ:MSTR), a software company that has been aggressively buying Bitcoin since August 2020. On Aug. 10, 2020, the company bought $250 million in Bitcoin, becoming one of the first public companies to buy the leading cryptocurrency for its balance sheet.

Since then, MicroStrategy has added more Bitcoin and currently holds 252,220 BTC as of September 2024. Saylor recently took a victory lap, showing that MSTR stock has outperformed top technology stocks like Nvidia, Amazon, Tesla, and Bitcoin itself since its first purchase of the cryptocurrency.

“But if you look out over four years or six years or eight years, then simply acquiring high-quality property with free cash flow is generally a really good investment strategy," Saylor previously told Benzinga. “We have a simple strategy and our strategy is we just acquire Bitcoin, and we hold the Bitcoin."

Saylor said Bitcoin is the "highest-quality, best asset in the world"

"Everything else is inferior to Bitcoin."

Cuban has encouraged investors over the years to put a small portion of their investments into cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Cuban, who is a partial owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, was also influential in the rise of Dogecoin, as his team accepted the meme cryptocurrency as a payment option for tickets and merchandise.

Buterin is a co-founder of Ethereum, who often shares his thoughts on the cryptocurrency sector. These days, Buterin's comments don't move the price of cryptocurrencies as significantly as in the past.

Dorsey co-founded Square, a payments company that also added Bitcoin to its balance sheet with a $50 million initial purchase in October 2020.  

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The study was conducted by Benzinga from Oct. 15 through Oct. 17, 2024, and included the responses of a diverse population of adults 18 or older. Opting into the survey was completely voluntary, with no incentives offered to potential respondents. The study reflects results from 117 adults.

Image created using artificial intelligence via Midjourney.