On Tuesday (June 21), Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who is the world’s richest person with an estimated net worth of around $214 billion (as of 21 June 2022) according to Forbes, explained why he feels that the need to support meme-based cryptocurrency Dogecoin ($DOGE).
Dogecoin was initially released on 6 December 2013, as a “fun and friendly internet currency.” It was created by Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer. It is “a decentralized, peer-to-peer digital currency” that has as its mascot “Doge”, a Shiba Inu (a Japanese breed of dog).
Since then, its popularity has substantially increased, especially this year, mostly thanks to support by billionaires Elon Musk (the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX) and Mark Cuban, to the point that it is currently the 10th most valuable cryptocurrency, with a market cap of over $8.64 billion. In fact, in 2019, Musk said that $DOGE might be his favorite cryptocurrency.
Musk’s comments were made while speaking with Bloomberg News Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait at the Qatar Economic Forum in Doha.
When asked by Micklethwait if — given the recent carnage in the crypto market — Musk still thinks people should invest in crypto, the Tesla CEO said:
“I have never said that people should invest in crypto. In the case of Tesla, SpaceX, and myself… we all did buy some Bitcoin, but it’s a small percentage of our cash and cash assets…
“I also bought some Dogecoin, and Tesla accepts Dogecoin for some merchandise, and SpaceX will do the same.
“And I intend to personally support Dogecoin because because I just know a lot of people who are not that wealthy who have encouraged me to buy and support Dogecoin; so, I’m responding to those people… Just people when I walk around the factory at SpaceX or Tesla, they’ve asked me to support Dogecoin; so I’m doing so.“
Last Sunday (June 19), Musk tweeted that he will keep supporting Dogecoin, which was not too surprising given that he has been saying nice things on Twitter about Dogecoin for the past three years.
What was surprising, though, was what the Tesla CEO said after one psendoymous crypto analyst (“Altcoin Gordon”) challenged him to buy $DOGE, to which Musk replied that he is.
According to data by Trading View, currently (as of 1:38 p.m. UTC on June 21), on crypto exchange Coinbase, $DOGE is trading around $0.0561, up 9.53% in the past 24-hour period.
