Elon Musk stepped into an Oakland courtroom last week and delivered a blunt assessment of the cryptocurrency world. “Some of them have merit, but most of them are scams,” he told the jury, as reported by Fortune. The remark came amid his high-stakes lawsuit against OpenAI, the AI company he co-founded in 2015. Questioned about OpenAI’s abandoned 2018 plan for an initial coin offering, Musk drew a line between viable assets like Bitcoin and the rest. That plan, meant to fund the then-nonprofit through token sales, echoed the late-2010s ICO frenzy—many projects raised millions only to collapse.
Musk accuses OpenAI of betraying its mission by partnering with Microsoft and chasing profits. He called it stealing a charity. OpenAI fires back, saying Musk knew a shift to for-profit was possible and even backed the ICO idea via a subsidiary. The trial exposes fractures not just in AI but in Musk’s own crypto stance. Once the self-proclaimed Dogefather, he pumped Dogecoin with tweets during the 2021 bull market. Tesla bought $1.5 billion in Bitcoin that year, pioneering corporate adoption.
But actions shifted. Tesla dumped 75% of its holdings in mid-2022. The rest? Valued at $786 million in Tesla’s first-quarter 2026 filings after a $222 million writedown—still a gain from the original $386 million cost basis, per SEC documents. Bitcoin had rocketed past $125,000 in 2024 after Donald Trump’s election. Tesla missed much of that surge. Musk’s testimony signals cooling enthusiasm. Fluid, yes. But telling.
Scammers exploit his fame relentlessly. Fake giveaways promise riches: Send 1 BTC, get 10 back. Always impersonating Musk. Recent X posts warn of sites like MarsoTex and LunarWex—new domains posing as Musk-themed crypto casinos, flagged with 1/100 trust scores. One post from blockchain investigator Bryan Robertson highlights MarsoTex as a one-day-old fraud. Another calls out Margex, an exchange accused of thefts ruining lives. Victims plead for Musk to ban such ads on X.
And Worldcoin? Co-founded by Musk’s rival Sam Altman—now “Scam Altman” in trial barbs—it’s drawn fire for iris-scanning orbs and privacy risks. Banned in spots. Token woes. X chatter ties it to Musk’s scam label. Broader context: Cybercrimes drained Americans of nearly $21 billion last year, per FBI data, with crypto a prime target as noted in USNN. Impersonation scams thrive on hype.
Musk still nods to Bitcoin’s merit. Tesla clings to over 11,000 coins. Rumors swirl of fresh buys, tied to X’s crypto push—hashtags live, beta money features rolling out, per Crypto News. Yet his words hang heavy for altcoins and memes. Billions lost in rug pulls. Pump-and-dumps. The ICO graveyard.
Industry insiders watch closely. Musk’s influence sways markets—Dogecoin proved it. Now, a sobriety check. Bitcoin stands apart in his view. Others? Buyer beware. Scams persist, preying on greed. His testimony isn’t just legal theater. It’s a warning shot. And with X evolving into a payments hub, expect tighter scrutiny. Tesla’s balance sheet tells the real story: selective bets in a minefield.
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