The price of Dogecoin skyrocketed this Tuesday after Twitter owner Elon Musk chose the image of a dog associated with this cryptocurrency as the social network’s new logo.
Elon Musk’s decision to replace the historic bluebird as the Twitter logo, either permanently or as a short-lived joke, caused Dogecoin to surge 21% to nearly 10 cents, according to CoinMarketCap.
The owner of Tesla, who bought Twitter last October, has long used the social network for self-promotion and humor, sometimes in favor of Dogecoin, a highly volatile cryptocurrency originally created as a joke and known for its icon, a Japanese breed of Shiba Inu. .
The multibillionaire has indicated in the past that he keeps part of his fortune in bitcoin.
Musk also brought up the possibility of allowing Dogecoin for online payments, sparking speculation about his vision of Twitter as a “do-it-all app” like WeChat in China, which offers many services.
An investor who lost money by gambling on Dogecoin filed a lawsuit in June 2022 and demanded compensation of $ 258,000 million (about 235,000 million euros) from Elon Musk and his companies Tesla and SpaceX, although the billionaire denies the allegations.
In a lawsuit released Friday, Musk’s lawyers called the lawsuit a “fantasy story.”
“There is nothing illegal about ‘tweeting’, encouraging, or posting funny pictures about a legit cryptocurrency,” they defended.
Changing the Twitter logo led to a number of publications featuring the dog, including Elon Musk himself.
The multi-billionaire also revealed a conversation with a user last year in which he promised to buy Twitter and make Shiba Inu his logo.
Launched in 2013, Dogecoin was an ironic response to two internet phenomena, cryptocurrencies, which multiplied after the success of bitcoin, and photo montages of a Shiba Inu dog that were very popular online.
Buoyed by some buying excitement around unlikely values in early 2021, as well as Elon Musk’s multiple positive tweets on Twitter, Dogecoin skyrocketed to over 70 cents in May 2021.
Afterward, Musk sent mixed messages, first describing Dogecoin as an “unstoppable financial vehicle that will take over the world” and then as “a hoax.” The value of this cryptocurrency then started to recede.
Source: DN
