Musk Announces Tesla Will Accept Dogecoin Payments for Merch
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, has said that the company would take Dogecoin in exchange for some of its merchandize.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently announced that the electric vehicle company would begin taking Dogecoin as payment for certain of its merchandize. “Tesla will make certain stuff available for purchase with Doge and will monitor the response,” Musk tweeted today.
Within minutes following the news, Dogecoin surged over 28 percent. Musk, the self-proclaimed “Dogefather,” has been in the news for embracing the joke cryptocurrency throughout the year.
With 66.3 million Twitter followers and a cult-like following outside the platform, Musk’s tweets and live appearances referencing the currency have often had a noticeable effect on its price.
For instance, in May, Musk referred to Dogecoin as “a hustle” during his first Saturday Night Live performance on NBC, precipitating a 29.5 percent drop in the asset’s price.
While Tesla is one of the biggest corporate Bitcoin investors, with over 42,000 Bitcoin on its balance sheet, Musk seems to be a greater Dogecoin devotee. Along with Bitcoin and Ethereum, Musk owns Dogecoin and has pondered assigning his team the responsibility of scaling the meme-inspired cryptocurrency to greater throughput.
“Bitcoin is not a suitable alternative for transactional cash on a fundamental level. Even though it was developed as a joke, Dogecoin is better suited for transactions,” Musk recently told Time Magazine upon his selection as the publication’s Person of the Year for 2021. Dogecoin is a cryptocurrency that “encourages individuals to spend instead than hoarding as a store of value,” he said.
Dogecoin is presently selling at $0.21, up from around $0.16 before to Musk’s statement today. Nonetheless, it is still much behind its all-time high of $0.78 set in May.
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