#Bitcoin tumbles following Elon Musk’s cryptic tweets

Is Elon Musk’s love affair with bitcoin over?

In a cryptic tweet Thursday night, the Tesla CEO posted a meme of a couple breaking up and added #Bitcoin and a broken-heart emoji. Two hours later, Musk posted an “I miss you” meme.

By 9 a.m. Friday, the price of bitcoin had fallen more than 5 percent to $36,500. That’s sorely short of the all-time high near $65,000 it had notched in mid-April.

Musk’s tweets drew thousands of angry, stressed-out and disgusted replies, with many accusing him of “manipulating” the price of the volatile cryptocurrency.

“The pied piper of crypto,” one Twitter user jeered.

“My wife is pregnant and my money is in crypto,” another replied. “I hope prices return to normal.”

Bitcoin rallied to record heights this spring after Musk announced in February that Tesla was buying $1.5 billion in bitcoin and would accept it as payment for the company’s electric cars. In May, bitcoin plummeted 36 percent when Tesla said it had reversed course on accepting bitcoin as payment. Musk has said the company will hold its bitcoin investment.

Other cryptocurrencies also tanked, with Musk’s pet favorite, Dogecoin, dropping nearly 10 percent to 36 cents early Friday. Ethereum fell nearly 6 percent.

Tesla officials couldn’t immediately be reached for comment on Friday.