In my opinion, Elon Musk is desperate,  from a number of many very important businessmen with global influence he was the only who tried to make money by manipulating the cryptomarket  in public. Everybody else even if he did he did it from the shadows without risking his business reputation.

The fact that Musk did it in public and he involved Tesla on this, in my opinion is a proof that his business is in desperate financial position. The models show his business is going to bankrupt within the next 1-2 years unless something changes very dramatically and this is why he involved Tesla on this, in order to produce this change!

In the long term in my opinion he failed, he will defiantly going to test the market again but in the long run he failed because a lot more people will eventually realize how desperate he has become.