Is Bitcoin Undervalued? What Elon Musk’s Energy Money Idea and Hashrate Data Show
Elon Musk says future forex will probably be measured in wattage and tonnage, not {dollars}. Analyst Charles Edwards says Bitcoin (BTC) already works that manner, and it trades about 36% under its energy-based worth.
Musk by no means talked about Bitcoin within the interview. Still, cash anchored to vitality describes the one property proof-of-work already builds into the community.
What Does Elon Musk Mean by Money Measured in Energy?
Musk made the remarks to his biographer, Walter Isaacson, on The Builders podcast. The interview was taped in early August and launched on October 20.
Musk argued that AI and robotics will generate income and work irrelevant. However, he stopped in need of predicting the top of forex.
“There will probably be nonetheless a forex, however I believe forex will probably be measured in elementary physics metrics like, energy, like wattage and tonnage, mass and vitality… typical forex is not going to matter sooner or later.”
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, on The Builders podcast
The thought just isn’t new for him. In June, Musk wrote on X that mass and vitality would take the place of {dollars}.
The prediction additionally comes from the world’s richest individual. Business Insider reported his internet price at about $920 billion on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Is Bitcoin Already Priced in Wattage?
Edwards, founding father of Capriole Investments and a member of BeInCrypto’s Market Intelligence Expert Council, responded inside hours. In his view, vitality and worth share a one-to-one relationship.
His 2019 paper derives a good worth from the electrical energy miners spend. The inputs are hashrate, {hardware} effectivity, provide development, and a set dollar-per-joule fixed.
Capriole argues that worth tends to revert towards this Energy Value over time. Unlike scarcity-based fashions, it additionally falls to zero if each miner switches off.
At press time, BTC trades close to $83,264, up 2.3% in 24 hours, in accordance with BeInCrypto Bitcoin price data. Against an Energy Value of $131,057, that leaves a niche of roughly 36%.
Closing it will require a achieve of about 57%. Historically, worth ran effectively above the road close to the 2013, 2017, and 2021 peaks.
In distinction, readings under it lined up with the 2015, 2018, 2020, and 2022 lows. This cycle broke the sample, as BTC tracked the road by means of 2024 and 2025 with out a speculative premium.
Miners Kept the Power On. Why Didn’t Price Follow?
Blockchain.com information reveals hashrate, the computing energy securing Bitcoin, topping 1.1 zettahashes per second (ZH/s) in October 2025.
Since then, the metric has dipped towards 900 exahashes per second (EH/s) beneath pressure on Bitcoin miners. It has now climbed again above 1 ZH/s.
Meanwhile, worth practically halved from its October 2025 document earlier than constructing a floor near $60,000 in June.
The vitality behind the community barely moved whereas its greenback worth did. JPMorgan’s current Bitcoin production cost estimate of $85,000 sits simply above at present’s worth.
Where the Elon Musk Wattage Argument Falls Short
Bitcoin solutions solely half of Musk’s method. Proof-of-work ties it to vitality, however nothing ties it to mass.
Musk may imply vitality itself because the unit of account, with no token concerned.
His personal document cuts each methods. In May 2021, Tesla suspended Bitcoin funds for automobiles, citing the fossil fuels burned in mining.
Hashrate can be a proxy reasonably than an influence meter, since newer machines extract extra hashes per watt.
Even so, the talk has flipped. The vitality use Musk as soon as cited in opposition to Bitcoin now ties it nearer to his imaginative and prescient. By that measure, BTC might resemble future cash greater than the greenback does.
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