Bitcoin has rallied after plunging below the $40,000 mark for the first time in more than three months, as Tesla boss Elon Musk insists the company will not sell any of its holdings in the cryptocurrency

Bitcoin has rallied after plunging below the $40,000 mark for the first time in more than three months, as Tesla boss Elon Musk insists the company will not sell any of its holdings in the cryptocurrency.

Despite the turbulence, celebrities and others who bought in early are still up big – but small investors who jumped on the Bitcoin trend in the past few months may have suffered ruinous losses.

Investors had rushed out of cryptocurrency earlier Wednesday after China sparked a market panic when officials announced a regulatory crackdown. Bitcoin dropped as low as $30,201.96 – down as much as 30 percent before it retraced most of its losses after Musk’s vote of confidence. 

By late afternoon trade in New York, the currency was still down about 10 percent on the day, but was well off its earlier lows. 

Shoring up the market amid turbulence, Musk indicated the company would not sell any of its Bitcoin holdings, tweeting on Wednesday morning: ‘Tesla has [diamond hands]’.

‘Diamond hands’ is slang popularized by the Reddit forum WallStreetBets, indicating a refusal to sell even in the face of falling prices.Tesla stock was down 2.6 percent in afternoon trading.

Tesla holds roughly 38,700 Bitcoins at an average purchase price of $34,700, according to a DailyMail.com analysis of the company’s public statements, meaning the company’s investment was worth $1.56 billion at Wednesday’s prices. 

That means even after the topsy-turvy markets of Wednesday, Tesla still has a gain of more than $200 million.

In the earlier sell-off, cryptocurrencies across the board were hit, and technology platforms that host the digital assets’ trading and other related functions reported being down and, in some cases even suspending withdrawals, adding to the negative tone in markets. 

People on Reddit trading boards described losing their shirts and some people even posted telephone numbers for a suicide help line in case the losses led to hopeless feelings.

‘I know today looks terrible and lots of people lost too much money they can afford to lose, but markets always bounce back so lets not do rash decisions!!!Life is more important!’ one person wrote on Reddit.

Another person wrote that they were selling because they could no longer stand the topsy turvy nature of the cryptocurrency: ‘I’m tired of holding an asset that I’m always worried will crash, is bad for the environment, could get stolen, where the network slows to crawl with even mild usage, will probably depreciate to zero value, and which barely gets used …’  

Yet another person said a weekend dip in the currency wiped out $40,000 of his Bitcoin holdings.’I actually sold,’ he said, after earning enough to pay off his mortage. 

Bitcoin earlier Wednesday  tumbled more than 50 percent from a record high of $64,895 hit on April 14, and erased all of its gains since February 8, when Tesla announced it had acquired a stake costing $1.5 billion. 

The company later sold off 10 percent of its holdings for a profit of $101 million, a 59 percent gain. 

Celebrities who have previously said they own Bitcoin include Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, former boxer Mike Tyson and Game of Thrones star Maisie Williams. 

However, all expressed interest in the cryptocurrency long before the recent price run-up and were unlikely to be in negative territory during the recent crash, presuming they still hold onto their holdings they previously touted. 

Dorsey said in 2019 that he spends several thousand a week on Bitcoin, Tyson was an early adopter in 2015, and Williams joined the Bitcoin train last November. 

Any Bitcoin purchased before early February of this year is still worth more than it cost to purchase. 

However, amateur enthusiasts who jumped on the trend at peak prices over the past two months would have suffered heavy losses. 

For example, $1,000 worth of Bitcoin purchased at the peak price would be worth just $618 on Wednesday afternoon, even after the cryptocurrency rebounded off its worst losses. 

Amid the selloff, Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, a cryptocurrency enthusiast, said that he would not sell as prices plunged.

‘I’m still in on crypto, I do believe buy the dips.I do believe that is a fundamental — if you like crypto, if you believe in crypto, you should never be happier than today, binance-opas because you can get it on discount,’ he said on a video podcast.

Bitcoin, the biggest and best-known cryptocurrency, had already been under pressure from a series of tweets from Musk, but the news from China sent it as low as $30,201.96 on Wednesday, a 28 percent drop on the day. 

China’s announcement on Tuesday reiterated a prior ban on financial institutions and payment companies from handling cryptocurrency transactions.China also warned investors against speculative crypto trading.

<div class="art-ins mol-factbox floatRHS news" data-version="2" id="mol-2f5de790-b8a5-11eb-990b-bbbae58a996d" website recovers from losses as Elon Musk says Tesla will NOT sell