Host Elon Musk in a monologue on Saturday, May 8, 2021.
Will Heath | NBCUniversal
Remember dogecoin?
The meme-inspired cryptocurrency spiked more than 20% Tuesday morning after Elon Musk said Tesla would accept dogecoin as payment for some of its goods.
“Tesla will make some goods shoppable with Doge and see how it goes,” the Tesla CEO said in a statement. tweet.
Musk has frequently talked about dogecoin, calling it his favorite digital currency and referring to it during an appearance on “Saturday Night Live.”
Dogecoin was originally started as a joke by its creators Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer in 2013. It takes its branding from the Japanese shiba inu, inspired by the original “doge” meme .
Tweets from Musk and increased interest from a wave of amateur investors fueled a speculative frenzy in the cryptocurrency earlier this year, sending its price higher.
Dogecoin went from a fraction of a cent in value at the start of the year to hit a record high price of over 74 cents in May. Since then, it has plummeted – at just 20 cents a coin, the token is down more than 70% from its all-time high.
Some crypto investors say that dogecoin is a phenomenon similar to “stock meme” like GameStop and AMC and should not be taken seriously.
“I am really not convinced… that dogecoin is good for the crypto market,” said Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of crypto company Ripple, told CNBC last month.
Recent Dogecoin find an opponent in shiba inu, a so-called meme token bills itself as a “dogecoin killer”. Shiba inu is currently the 13th largest coin by market value, briefly overtaking dogecoin.
