Dogecoin surges 68% in past week, Elon Musk jokes about it on Twitter 🚨 This article is 6 years old...
Dogecoin surges 68% in past week, Elon Musk jokes about it on Twitter
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Updated: Oct. 16, 2021 at 2:39 am UTC
Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate. Image includes combined content which may include AI-generated content.
The price of Dogecoin—like the rest of the cryptocurrency market—skyrocketed Apr. 1 and has continued to rally since. In the midst of the rally, Elon Musk, founder and CEO of SpaceX and Tesla mentioned the meme cryptocurrency in a couple of tweets on Apr. 2.
What is Dogecoin?
The Dogecoin team describes the cryptocurrency as:
“An open source peer-to-peer digital currency, favored by Shiba Inus worldwide.”
The Japanese breed of dog known as Shiba Inu was used as the mascot of the project. Dogecoin was created in 2013 by Jackson Palmer as a joke but it is now the 22nd ranked cryptocurrency by market cap. The Dogecoin market cap stands at $414 million at the time of press.
Elon Musk Tweets About Dogecoin
Elon Musk attracts a lot of attention on Twitter and when he tweets anything crypto or Bitcoin-related, Crypto Twitter is quick to react and speculate about deeper meaning.
During the late 2017 bull run, Musk denied on Twitter that he was Satoshi Nakamoto after a former SpaceX employee wrote a medium post exploring the possibility.
On Apr. 2, while the Dogecoin rally was in progress, Musk tweeted:
Dogecoin rulz pic.twitter.com/flWWUgAgLU
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 2, 2019
The tweet was followed by another:
Dogecoin value may vary https://t.co/UWerAhPv63
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 2, 2019
The caption in the second tweet, “Dogecoin value may vary” appears to be a jest aimed at a 2017 Onion article which suggested that the drop in the bitcoin price meant the cryptocurrency had vulnerabilities.
Jackson Palmer, who is no longer associated with the Dogecoin team, continued with the fun when he tweeted:
Am considering selling https://t.co/fkJ7AkqCIj for $4.20B. Funding (not yet) secured.
— Jackson Palmer (@ummjackson) April 2, 2019
The joke from Palmer was in reference to a tweet in which the Tesla CEO revealed that he had secured funding to buy back Tesla shares and take the company private.
Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 7, 2018
Dogecoin Market Data
At the time of press 2:39 am UTC on Oct. 16, 2021, Dogecoin is ranked #13 by market cap and the price is down 5.39% over the past 24 hours. Dogecoin has a market capitalization of $6.93 billion with a 24-hour trading volume of $2.73 billion. Learn more about Dogecoin ›
Crypto Market Summary
At the time of press 2:39 am UTC on Oct. 16, 2021, the total crypto market is valued at at $1.72 trillion with a 24-hour volume of $171.62 billion. Bitcoin dominance is currently at 60.96%. Learn more about the crypto market ›
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Dogecoin
$0.38018
Dogecoin is a cryptocurrency created in December 2013 as a joke by software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer.
South African-born Elon Musk has founded several companies, including X.com (which later became PayPal), SpaceX and Tesla Motors.