Elon Musk Named Time Person Of The Year, But It's Not Because Of Crypto

TIME, an American news magazine and news website based in New York, has named business magnate Elon Musk as its 2021 Person of the Year.

Musk, who has been criticized for his undue influence to the crypto community, even going forth to earn a term after his name: The Musk Effect. Aside from being a regular contributor to weird, mostly-uncalled-for crypto takes on Twitter about SHIBA INU and DOGE (yup, memecoins), Musk is also the founder, CEO and CTO of SpaceX, co-founder of Tesla Motors, and chairman of SolarCity, which he co-founded with his younger brother.

“A few short years ago, Musk was roundly mocked as a crazy con artist on the verge of going broke,” TIME said of Musk. “Now this shy South African with Asperger’s syndrome, who escaped a brutal childhood and overcame personal tragedy, bends governments and industry to the force of his ambition.”

Despite his accomplishments in other innovative and cutting-edge industries, Musk has not been involved in crypto in any meaningful way. His name has frequently come up as a result of his impact on the market, but only insofar as he has been influential in shaping public opinion. Perhaps the closest Musk's experience could be related to crypto is the fact that he co-founded PayPal, a payments tech firm which has now moved into the crypto space.

“For creating solutions to an existential crisis, for embodying the possibilities and the perils of the age of tech titans, for driving society’s most daring and disruptive transformations, Elon Musk is TIME’s 2021 Person of the Year,” shared TIME magazine's editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal.

For better or for worse, Elon Musk is one of the most well-known figures in the world today, especially in the  tech sector. The Tesla, SpaceX and PayPal founder is arguably one of the most skilful innovators in history, having kickstarted the electric car industry with Tesla while simultaneously making it possible for man to take their first steps into space with his other company SpaceX.

In the crypto space and beyond, Musk has remained a controversial character, even before he became famous for his companies. His current role as executive chairman of OpenAI (a non-profit AI development company that aims to promote and develop friendly AI that benefits humanity as a whole) has come under question from Elon Musk critics who claim it contradicts his previous statements on the dangers of artificial intelligence and its constructs taking control over the world.

Musk also has close ties with Mark Zuckerberg and Peter Thiel, two people who have committed significant capital in metaverse and AI projects of their own (Zuckerberg with the now-renamed Meta, formerly known as Facebook, and Thiel with secretive startup Palantir). It has also been reported that Musk's PayPal co-founder Thiel is developing his own cryptocurrency.

As one of TIME's most influential people in the industry, it's highly likely that Elon Musk will continue to influence the market, even if only through the kind of indirect impact he appears to have had already. Despite Musk's industry ties, there is no particular blockchain evidence to date that shows he has made any significant investment into crypto himself. That, despite currently being the world's richest person with a net worth of over $265 billion.

TIME's recognition is a testament to his widespread influence, even if it's not always clear what that influence is meant to achieve. In the world of crypto, that remains to be seen.

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