Dogecoin Rallies Up As Tesla Officially Starts Accepting It For Payments

Dogecoin, the cryptocurrency associated with a Shiba Inu dog joke, jumped 15% in value on Friday after entrepreneur Elon Musk indicated it could be used to purchase Tesla items.

According to data from the Coinbase website, Dogecoin climbed to $0.20 after Musk’s post early Friday, and has risen 5,859 percent in the last year.

Soon after, dogecoin payments became available on Tesla’s website, with things like an electric quad bike for kids costing 12,020 doge ($2,368; £1,735) and a Giga Texas Belt Buckle at 835 doge ($156) or a whistle costing 300 doge ($57) for those on a tighter budget.

Mr. Musk has a history of making statements about cryptocurrencies. Late last year, Dogecoin’s value skyrocketed after Elon Musk announced that Tesla would accept the cryptocurrency as payment for some items.

Tesla spent $1.5 billion on bitcoin last year. Mr. Musk also stated at the time that the company will start taking cryptocurrency payments. After Mr. Musk expressed worries about high levels of fossil-fuel use for bitcoin mining, it later discontinued such purchases.

Musk’s tweets for dogecoin, including one in which he referred to it as the people’s crypto, have turned the once-obscure digital currency into a speculator’s fantasy. In 2021, the token’s value increased by about 4,000 percent.

Despite criticism for his attitude toward taxes, antagonism to unions, and downplaying the dangers of Covid-19, Musk, the world’s richest person with an estimated $264 billion fortune, was selected Time magazine’s person of the year for 2021.

Time referred to Musk as a “clown, genius, edgelord, visionary, industrialist, showman,” citing the scope of his accomplishments, which included creating SpaceX in 2002 and helping to found SolarCity, an alternative energy firm, in addition to Tesla, the world’s most valuable car company.

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Mr. Musk is the world’s richest person. Dogecoin is closely tied with him. He tweeted a fake “Dogue” magazine cover to his millions of followers almost a year ago. A few days later, he referenced the currency on Twitter again, pushing its value up by 80% intraday before reducing gains.

Last year, Dogecoin made a cameo appearance in Mr. Musk’s hosting debut on “Saturday Night Live.” Mr. Musk appears as “The Dogefather” in a humorous piece. Other cast members urged him to explain “What is dogecoin?” after he expound on the cryptocurrency’s benefits using jargon. “It’s a hustle,” Musk simply said.

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