One-word tweet from Elon Musk launches crypto dogecoin into the stratosphere

Two days after Elon Musk’s self-proclaimed break from Twitter, the eccentric billionaire took to the microblogging platform to set off another crypto craze that evoked an unprecedented surge for dogecoin cryptocurrency.

Dogecoin (DOGE), the meme-based cryptocurrency that was initially started as a joke, soared 44 percent after several tweets posted by Musk. The token was trading at $0.051059, marking a 55-percent day-to-day surge, at 10:30 GMT, according to Coindesk. Its market capitalization totaled over $6 billion.

It's not the first time the billionaire has shaken the crypto world with just several words or pictures posted on Twitter. Musk also sent the price of dogecoin spiking when he tweeted about it in December, and last week, he referenced the digital currency in a meme that he tweeted.

This time, the upsurge was recorded shortly after Musk shared a picture of a rocket moving towards the moon. The image was followed by a one-word tweet: “Doge.”

The Tesla and SpaceX founder then published an iconic Lion King meme featuring him holding up the dogecoin dog as if it were Simba.

In follow-up tweets, he wrote that “Dogecoin is the people’s crypto,” and said, “No need to be a gigachad to own,” and “No highs, no lows, only Doge.”

Screenshot © Twitter / @elonmusk

The tweets were “just meant to be jokes,” Musk said in an interview on the social media app Clubhouse, as cited by Newsweek. 

“Arguably the most entertaining outcome and the most ironic outcome would be dogecoin becomes the currency of earth in the future,” he said, stressing that “fate loves irony”.

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