Musk will be a very busy man — as well as being CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, he's set to lead Twitter on an interim basis.
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Editor's Note: Why is DOGE Up?
Molly Jane Zuckerman writes...
During last year’s bull market, Dogecoin was one of the biggest winners. Trading at just over $0.08 today, there was a movement to get the memecoin over $1 — and this actually seemed possible at the time, mainly thanks to Elon Musk’s tweets.
Whenever Musk tweeted, DOGE would soar. In May 2021, his “The Dogefather SNL May 8” tweet sent DOGE up 20%: his Tesla merch accepting DOGE tweet had sent DOGE up 22% the day before. And as far back as his first ever DOGE tweet on Apr. 2, 2019 — “Dogecoin might be my fav cryptocurrency. It’s pretty cool.” — DOGE went from $0.002 to $0.004.
Now, it’s a bear market. DOGE is down around 90% from its bear market peak, and yet every time that Musk tweets about DOGE, it still goes up.
In fact, even when Musk tweets about non-DOGE-related news (most often, the Twitter deal), DOGE goes up. Now, Elon Musk has spoken publicly about many, many plans for Twitter: from turning its HQ into a homeless shelter, letting go 75% of its workforce, changing his mind about letting go out 75% of its workforce, and tweeting poop emojis at the Twitter CEO.
None of that, however, has to do with integrating DOGE on Twitter in any way — but it seems like the DOGE army doesn’t care. As long as Musk is doing something strange on Twitter, Dogecoin’s price likes it.
If Elon Musk sneezed at this point, would DOGE still go up?
'The bird is freed' 🚨
Elon Musk has officially bought Twitter, declaring: "The bird is freed." News of the acquisition broke in a chaotic fashion — and it quickly emerged that the billionaire had fired several top executives, including the CEO. Reports suggest general counsel Sean Edgett had to be escorted from the building. Despite the fact Musk already leads Tesla and SpaceX, it seems he will also serve as Twitter's CEO on an interim basis. Trading of Twitter stock has now been suspended on the New York Stock Exchange — and investors will receive $54.20 per share each.
Musk's motivation 👀
The billionaire's $44 billion deal comes after months of drama and uncertainty, along with allegations that he was trying to back out of the takeover. But threatened with a lawsuit that would force him to complete the acquisition, Musk relented and returned to the negotiating table. In a message to advertisers, the entrepreneur said he wasn't motivated by money — and said it's important "to have a common digital town square where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner." He added: "Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences! In addition to adhering to the laws of the land, our platform must be warm and welcoming to all."
His top priorities 😱
Donald Trump could be set to make a return to Twitter after Elon Musk's acquisition — with spam bots also high on the billionaire's list of priorities. The former U.S. president was permanently suspended back in January 2021 because of "the risk of further incitement of violence." Some major companies are threatening to pull advertising if Musk enacts this policy. It also seems like the new "Chief Twit" is paying close attention to those who claim they are being censored through "shadow bans." A big bone of contention during negotiations concerned how many fake users Twitter has — with Musk arguing the true figure had been grossly underestimated. Once he's got his feet under the table, he'll have an opportunity to find out for himself.
The crypto angle 🔥
As you would expect, there's a crypto element to all of this as well. Musk has repeatedly tweeted about his enthusiasm for Bitcoin and Dogecoin. Earlier this year, he openly mused about whether DOGE should be accepted as a payment method for the Twitter Blue subscription service. DOGE has rallied hard in reaction to Musk's acquisition being finalized — up 41% in the past seven days. Binance — the crypto exchange that owns CoinMarketCap — has also confirmed that it's invested in Elon Musk's Twitter takeover. Co-founder CZ said: "We aim to play a role in bringing social media and Web3 together in order to broaden the use and adoption of crypto and blockchain technology."
