Elon Musk: Ditch dollar, buy stocks — but I'm not selling my bitcoin

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Elon Musk
Tesla boss Elon Musk. The tech tycoon was discussing the impact of inflation on his firms. Photo: Patrick Pleul/Pool/AFP via Getty (PATRICK PLEUL via Getty Images)

The world's richest man, Elon Musk has given his view on which assets are better to invest in as soaring inflation grips nations across the world due to the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Musk, who is no stranger to being vocal about current events and geopolitics on social media platform Twitter (TWTR), discussed rising inflation and its impact on assets in a thread.

He asked his followers: "What are your thoughts about probable inflation rate over next few years?" and on the same thread Musk admitted the impact inflation has had on his companies.

Musk said he still owns and won’t sell his bitcoin (BTC-USD), ethereum (ETH-USD) or dogecoin (DOGE-USD) assets. He also said he thinks it is better to own assets like a "home or stock in companies than dollars" when inflation is high.

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Bitcoin rose 0.9% to $38,866 (£29,749) following his comments. Ethereum — the world's second largest crypto by market value — increased 1.5% to $2,578, while memecoin doge briefly jumped as much as 10%, currently up 1.7%.

The SpaceX and Tesla (TSLA) boss said on Sunday the two companies are facing significant inflationary pressure in raw materials and logistics.

"Tesla & SpaceX are seeing significant recent inflation pressure in raw materials & logistics," he tweeted.

The Kremlin's invasion of its neighbour has been ramping up the prices of metals used in cars, from palladium (PA=F) in catalytic converters, aluminium (ALI=F) in the bodywork to the high-grade nickel in electric vehicle batteries.

While metals have not been the target of western sanctions as yet, some shippers and auto-parts suppliers are steering clear of Russian goods, putting more pressure on automakers already reeling from a chip shortage and higher energy prices.

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Musk also seemed to challenge Russian president Vladimir Putin to a fight for Ukraine on Twitter.

"I hereby challenge Vladimir Putin to single combat," he tweeted, using the Russian alphabet to write Putin’s name, adding "stakes are Ukraine", he said, writing the country's name in its own language.

Musk then posted a whole message in Russian in a follow-up tweet. "Do you agree to this fight?," he wrote, tagging the Kremlin’s official English language Twitter account.

Musk has been a long-time supporter of cryptocurrencies, especially bitcoin and dogecoin, and his tweets about bitcoin and cryptocurrencies have contributed to price swings, and sent the price of the flagship token soaring after he tagged it in his Twitter bio.

Watch: Can you live exclusively off bitcoin?

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