Dogecoin (DOGE) saw a boost when Tesla CEO Elon Musk asked whether the company should accept the cryptocurrency as payment.
In a tweet on May 11, Musk asked, “Do you want Tesla to accept Doge?” Within two hours of posting, the survey had over 1.4 million responses. At that point, 76.8% responded affirmatively, while 23.2% rejected the proposal. Tesla began accepting bitcoin (BTC) as payment in March.
As Musk posed the question, the price of dogecoin spiked over 20%. After trading at $0.46, within half an hour of the post, the price jumped as high as $0.54. It is currently trading just above $0.50.
Elon the Dogefather
Dogecoin has been on a wild ride over the past month, in part thanks to its association with the Tesla CEO. Known for his ironic tweets about the meme cryptocurrency, they have taken on new significance in light of dogecoin’s ascendance.
As recently as January of this year, dogecoin was trading for just a fraction of a penny. In February, the price rose significantly to over $0.05. However, by mid-April the value increased eight-fold to $0.40, before retracing. The coin saw another bump at that point, after Musk tweeted, “The Dogefather SNL May 8.” This pushed the price back up to $0.65.
Dogecoin continued its rise all the way up until hours before Musk’s performance on SNL on May 8. But after reaching an all-time high of $0.72, Dogecoin began to fall leading up to and during Musk’s appearance.
Apparently, during Musk’s performance, several fraudsters made claims of dogecoin giveaways using his image and likeness. In order to receive their “claims,” the giveaways instructed users to send coins to an affiliated account. The prompt claimed that they would receive their initial deposit plus an amount equal to what they sent.
These scams targeted fans of Musk, who believed he might use his appearance to make further promotions for dogecoin. The losses of those who sent money could amount to more than $5 million.
Meanwhile, Musk’s other company SpaceX has also been making dogecoin integrations of its own. SpaceX announced that its “DOGE-1 Mission to the Moon” launching in early 2022, will be funded with dogecoin.
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