Dogecoin jumps 18% after Elon Musk’s tweet

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Elon Musk and his son X Æ A-12 on stage TIME Person of the Year on December 13, 2021 in New York City Photo: Theo Wargo (Getty Images)

Tesla will soon accept dogecoin as a payment method for goods, according to a tweet from Elon Musk on Tuesday morning. The announcement pushed the price of dogecoin up by more than 18% at a time when most cryptocurrencies have plunged.

“Tesla will make some products purchasable with Doge and see how that goes,” tweeted Musk, who was revealed as Time’s Person of the Year for 2021 on Monday at 5:34 am ET.

Dogecoin’s price skyrocketed immediately, and it’s currently up over 18% at a price of $ 0.19. That’s well below the all-time crypto record of $ 0.71 in May, but up sharply from the past few days.

Dogecoin was originally founded as a cryptocurrency joke to poke fun at the silliness of the crypto market, but has since grown into a popular alternative to more traditional coins like bitcoin and ethereum. Musk, the richest person on the planet, often tweets cryptocurrency and can push prices up and down on a whim, much like he did today with dogecoin.

“Basically, bitcoin is not a good substitute for transactional currency,” Musk told Time magazine on Monday. “Even though it was created as a silly joke, dogecoin is better suited for transactions.”

Tesla experimented with accepting bitcoin payments for cars, but stopped when the price of bitcoin fell. Notably, Musk doesn’t allow people to buy cars with dogecoin. At least not yet. But he seems particularly bullish on dogecoin as a payment method, a sentiment that could change completely by next week, if history is to be trusted.

Bitcoin, the world’s most popular cryptocurrency, trades at $ 47,286 on Tuesday morning, down nearly 3% from the previous day. Bitcoin hit an all-time high of $ 68,007 on November 9, but has been declining steadily since its peak.

Ethereum is also down almost 5% to a price of $ 3,810, followed with bitcoin and pretty much every other major cryptocurrency on the market. Ether also hit an all-time high on November 9 at $ 4,806.

Musk, who is worth $ 297 billion, paid $ 0 in federal income tax in 2018.

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