Yesterday wasn’t the first time Dogecoin has skyrocketed as a direct result of one of Musk’s tweets, and it certainly won’t be the last.
Elon Musk has once again set the Twittersphere on fire, sent Dogecoin moonward and drove the mainstream media into a frenzy, all with a single tweet.
In May this year, Musk tweeted, “The Dogefather SNL May 8,” which sent Twitter into a tizzy, and DOGE soared 20% in 24 hours.
The Dogefather— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 28, 2021
SNL May 8
And then, as you may remember, Musk called Dogecoin “a hustle” on the show, which sent the memecoin spiralling downwards from $0.65 to $0.41.
But in October, Musk once again changed his tune, and revealed on Twitter that he owns Doge.
Out of curiosity, I acquired some ascii hash strings called “Bitcoin, Ethereum & Doge”. That’s it.— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 24, 2021
As I’ve said before, don’t bet the farm on crypto! True value is building products & providing services to your fellow human beings, not money in any form.
Yesterday, Musk tweeted that his electric car company, Tesla, will start accepting Doge as payment for its official merchandise.
Tesla will make some merch buyable with Doge & see how it goes
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 14, 2021
DOGE’s price soared 22% in the five minutes following Musk’s tweet, from $0.159 to $0.194.
Over the next hour, DOGE’s price rose even further to $0.218, marking a 37% increase from before the tweet.
This recent Musk-driven surge was good news for DOGE holders — the memecoin had been trending steadily downwards since the end of October.
However, now that more than a day has passed, DOGE’s price has pulled back a little to $0.181 and is still way down from its ATH of $0.737.
Tesla isn’t the first large company to accept DOGE as payment for goods and services.
In March, Mark Cuban announced that the Dallas Mavericks would accept DOGE to purchase tickets and merchandise.
So What Can You Actually Buy?
Provided Musk follows through on this latest crypto promise (unlike Tesla accepting Bitcoin SMDH), DOGE holders will be able to buy various unique and interesting items from the Tesla merchandise store, including:
- A Giga Texas Belt Buckle - $150;
- A Cyberwhistle, modelled after the company’s Cybertruck - $50;
- A Desktop Supercharger USB cable organiser- $45;
- A Cyberquad for kids, also modelled after the Cybertruck - $1,900;
- A variety of Tesla mini model cars from $175.
This recent foray into Doge follows Musk’s interview with Time magazine after being named TIME’s 2021 Person of the Year.
The interview involved a discussion of the future of crypto, in which Musk said:
Watch: TIME's 2021 Person of the Year @elonmusk discusses cryptocurrency #TIMEPOY https://t.co/FfwEGxW7LX pic.twitter.com/5BXAZky0LS— TIME (@TIME) December 13, 2021
Musk’s Crypto History
This isn’t the first time that Musk has sought to integrate crypto into his businesses, either.
Earlier this year, Musk announced that Tesla would accept Bitcoin as payment for its cars, and that the company had bought $1.5 billion in Bitcoin.
Tesla & Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/YSswJmVZhP— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 12, 2021
Future economics classes might study Musk’s enormous and scary influence over Doge and the crypto markets. But for now, all we can do is watch.