Elon Musk, who is the founder of Tesla and SpaceX, pushed the value of Dogecoin by 35% in a series of tweets posted over the weekend. According to Business Insider, the cryptocurrency shot up around 35% in a 24-hour period, with its value hitting an all-time high of $0.065448 after its daily low of $0.048356.
Created in 2013, Dogecoin started out as a gag between founders Jackson Palmer and Billy Markus, who wanted to satirize the world of bitcoin by turning the popular doge internet meme into a form of cryptocurrency. The joke cryptocurrency is now the internet’s center of attention thanks to Musk’s new found obsession.
On Saturday Evening, Musk set up a poll – asking his 46 million followers what they thought was the ‘Future Currency of Earth’: 71.3% voted for ‘Dogecoin to the Moooonn’ while the remaining 28.7% voted ‘all other crypto combined’.
The future currency of Earth
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 6, 2021
Musk’s active participation on Reddit’s WallStreetBets sub-forum in recent weeks has also catapulted the cryptocurrency’s value to new levels. Both Musk’s Tweets and his Reddit posts have ignited a flood of memes, with Twitter users competing on creativity in hopes of getting a retweet: On Sunday, Musk tweeted ‘so…it finally comes to this…” with a Lion-King inspired meme featuring the Doge and Musk’s faces.
So … it’s finally come to this … pic.twitter.com/Gf0Rg2QOaF
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 7, 2021
"You may have many best friends but your doge only has one" pic.twitter.com/lQtX8Zr5Gw
— CoinDCX: India's Largest Cryptocurrency Exchange (@CoinDCX) February 6, 2021
Musk’s recent influence on Dogecoin’s price demonstrates the increasing predictive power of Social Media on the trading market. Moreover, Musk’s tweets indicate that positive [or negative] opinions have a rippling effect on people’s behaviors and attitudes.