The price of Dogecoin skyrocketed this Tuesday after the owner of Twitter, Elon Musk, chose the image of a dog associated with this cryptocurrency as the new logo of the social network.
Elon Musk’s decision to replace the historic blue bird as Twitter’s logo, either permanently or as a short-lived joke, sent Dogecoin up 21% to nearly 10 cents, according to CoinMarketCap.
The Tesla owner, 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 by its icon, a Japanese Shiba Inu breed.
The billionaire has indicated in the past that he has part of his fortune in bitcoin.
Musk also raised the possibility of allowing Dogecoin to be used 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 betting on Dogecoin filed a lawsuit in June 2022, asking for compensation of 258,000 million dollars (about 235,000 million euros) to Elon Musk and his companies Tesla and SpaceX, although the billionaire denies the accusations.
In a court filing released Friday, Musk’s lawyers called the lawsuit a “fantasy narrative.”
“There is nothing illegal about ‘tweeting’ encouraging or posting funny images about a legitimate cryptocurrency,” they defended.
Changing the Twitter logo spawned a number of posts featuring the dog, including from Elon Musk himself.
-Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 3, 2023
The billionaire also revealed a conversation with a user last year, where he promised to buy Twitter and make Shiba Inu his logo.
as promised pic.twitter.com/Jc1TnAqxAV
-Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 3, 2023
Launched in 2013, Dogecoin was a tongue-in-cheek response to two internet phenomena, cryptocurrencies, which exploded after the success of bitcoin, and Shiba Inu dog photo montages that were wildly popular online.
Buoyed by some buying enthusiasm around unlikely values in early 2021, as well as multiple positive tweets from Elon Musk on Twitter, Dogecoin skyrocketed to over 70 cents in May 2021.
Subsequently, 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 began to decline.
Source: TSF
