Musk wrote simply "#bitcoin" in his biography on
the social media site. The world's biggest cryptocurrency was up 10.2 percent
at $36,901 as of 10:05 GMT (3:35pm IST) .
The billionaire entrepreneur, followed by 43.8 million users
on Twitter, has a record of making market-moving comments on the site.
GameStop, which has been at the centre of retail trading
frenzy, surged 50 percent on Tuesday after Musk tweeted
"Gamestonk!!", along with a link to the Reddit Wallstreetbets stock
trading discussion group. There, supporters affectionately refer to him as "Papa
Musk."
"Stonks" is a tongue-in-cheek term for stocks
widely used on social media.
Bitcoin jumped over 300 percent last year, as bigger US
investors and corporations sought exposure to the cryptocurrency. It touched an
all-time high of $42,000 last month.
In December, Musk asked about the possibility of converting
"large transactions" of Tesla's balance sheet into bitcoin, in a
Twitter exchange with a well-known advocate for the digital currency.
"That would be a very big deal," said Christopher
Bendiksen of digital asset manager CoinShares on Friday.
Traders also cited positive comments on Bitcoin by hedge
fund manager Ray Dalio as supporting sentiment.
The Bridgewater Associates founder wrote on Thursday that
the cryptocurrency was "one hell of an invention," adding that he
viewed it as a "gold-like alternative asset."
Smaller cryptocurrencies including ethereum and XRP that tend
to move in tandem with Bitcoin also jumped, as much as 5 percent and 8 percent
respectively.