It’s a good day to own dogecoin. The world’s most popular meme cryptocurrency is up over 30% this morning as of the time of this writing, according to CoinMarketCap. Dogecoin is currently sitting at around $0.215 per coin. That’s up from just above $0.15 per coin yesterday.
So why is dogecoin skyrocketing? Elon Musk. The answer is always Elon Musk. Time’s questionable choice of Person of the Year tweeted that Tesla will make some merchandise that can be purchased by dogecoin and “see how it goes.” And with that tweet, dogecoin shot up.
Tesla will make some merch buyable with Doge & see how it goes
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 14, 2021
Of course, given that Musk said dogecoin can be used for some Tesla “merch” it’s likely Musk does not mean people will soon be able to buy a Tesla with dogecoin – probably more like a Tesla t-shirt, or, knowing Musk, something more wacky.
It’s not entirely unexpected that Musk made the dogecoin announcement today. Historically, Musk has been the meme coin’s most high-profile cheerleader. And as CNBC notes, Musk recently told Time magazine that “Fundamentally, bitcoin is not a good substitute for transactional currency. And even though it was created as a silly joke, dogecoin is better suited for transactions.”
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