Dogecoin Soars After Elon Musk Says Tesla Will Accept It as Payment for Merchandise
The cryptocurrency dogecoin surged after
Elon Musk
tweeted that Tesla will accept some payments in the digital token.
Dogecoin’s price soared as much as 40% compared with Monday’s level at 5 p.m. ET, according to data from CoinDesk. It traded at 22 cents on Tuesday, compared with 16 cents the day before, before easing down to around 20 cents.
“Tesla will make some merch buyable with Doge & see how it goes,” Mr. Musk wrote in the tweet on Tuesday morning.
Dogecoin has been one of the most volatile among cryptocurrencies. It was started in 2013 as a joke and is based on a Shiba Inu internet meme. It had surged over 15,500% in 2021 at its peak in May and is still up over 3,000% for the year.
Mr. Musk is a vocal commentator on cryptocurrencies on social media. His tweets have frequently moved prices, both up and down. He has generally been a supporter of dogecoin, but criticized bitcoin for its high energy use.
He has previously involved Tesla in his views on cryptocurrencies, buying $1.5 billion of bitcoin in February with company funds. Mr. Musk also said at the time that Tesla would begin accepting payments in the cryptocurrency. This was suspended a few months later, citing concerns about high levels of fossil fuel use for bitcoin mining.
Write to Anna Hirtenstein at anna.hirtenstein@wsj.com
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Appeared in the December 15, 2021, print edition as ‘Dogecoin Surges 19% After Musk’s Support.’
