Bitcoin Trades Below Energy Value as Musk's Idea Resonates

Future currency will be gauged by wattage and tonnage rather than dollars, according to Elon Musk. Bitcoin already operates on that principle, says analyst Charles Edwards, and it currently trades roughly 36% under its energy-based valuation.

The Tesla CEO did not refer to Bitcoin in his remarks. Nonetheless, a currency tied to energy matches the feature that proof-of-work already embeds in the network.

What Musk Meant by Money Measured in Energy

Musk spoke to his biographer Walter Isaacson on The Builders podcast. The conversation was recorded in early August and published on October 20.

Musk contended that artificial intelligence and robotics would render money and work obsolete. He did not, however, go so far as to forecast the disappearance of currency.

“There will be still a currency, but I think currency will be measured in fundamental physics metrics like, power, like wattage and tonnage, mass and energy… conventional currency will not matter in the future.”

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, on The Builders podcast

ELON MUSK: “Currency will be measured in mass, power and energy. Conventional currency will not matter. It's pretty obvious.” Is that a secret code for Bitcoin?

— Bitcoin Archive (@BitcoinArchive) October 20, 2026

This concept is not novel for Musk. In June, he posted on X that mass and energy would replace dollars.

The forecast also originates from the world's wealthiest individual. Business Insider placed his net worth at roughly $920 billion on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Does Bitcoin Already Have an Energy-Based Price?

Charles Edwards, who founded Capriole Investments and serves on BeInCrypto’s Market Intelligence Expert Council, replied within hours. He sees a one-to-one link between energy and price.

Bitcoin is already measured in Wattage. There’s a 1-1 relationship between energy and price.

See my 2019 paper: https://t.co/KNWo3NULpx https://t.co/c9b3mHHxWb

— Charles Edwards (@caprioleio) October 20, 2026

Edwards' 2019 paper calculates a fair value based on the electricity consumed by miners. The model uses hashrate, hardware efficiency, supply growth, and a constant dollar-per-joule figure.

Capriole contends that price generally returns to this Energy Value over the long run. In contrast to scarcity-based models, the value drops to zero if all mining ceases.

As of this writing, bitcoin is trading around $83,264, a 2.3% increase in the past day, per BeInCrypto price data. Compared with an Energy Value of $131,057, the shortfall is about 36%.

To close that gap would need a rise of roughly 57%. In past cycles, price has surged far above that line around the 2013, 2017, and 2021 highs.

Conversely, readings below that level coincided with the troughs of 2015, 2018, 2020, and 2022. The current cycle deviated from that pattern, with bitcoin hugging the line during 2024 and 2025 without an added speculative premium.

Miners Maintained Hashrate. Why Did Price Not Keep Pace?

According to Blockchain.com, the hashrate—the computing power that secures Bitcoin—exceeded 1.1 zettahashes per second in October 2025.

Since that peak, the hashrate fell to around 900 exahashes per second as miners faced headwinds. It has since recovered above 1 ZH/s.

In the same period, bitcoin's price dropped by almost half from its October 2025 all-time high before establishing a support level near $60,000 in June.

The energy underlying the network held steady even as the dollar-denominated price fluctuated heavily. JPMorgan's most recent estimate of bitcoin's production cost, at $85,000, is slightly above the current price.

Limitations of Musk's Energy-Based Argument

Bitcoin fulfills only one side of Musk's equation. Its proof-of-work links it to energy, but it has no connection to mass.

Musk could also be referring to energy itself as the unit of account, without any token.

Musk's own actions offer mixed signals. In May 2021, Tesla halted bitcoin payments for its vehicles, pointing to the fossil fuels used in mining.

Hashrate is also an approximation, not a direct power measurement, because newer hardware yields more hashes per watt.

Nonetheless, the discussion has shifted. The energy consumption that Musk previously criticized now aligns bitcoin more closely with his view. On that basis, BTC may look more like the money of the future than the dollar.