Elon Musk breaks his brief silence on Twitter by announcing DogeCoin “meme cryptocurrency,” causing the asset to soar 60% amid concern over the Tesla founder’s ability to move markets so easily
- Musk sent a lot of tweets on Thursday promoting DogeCoin with “joke” cryptocurrency
- He followed his vow to take a break with Twitter after fueling the GameStop frenzy
- DogeCoin rose to 60% after its tweets, to a market capitalization of $ 6 million
- The cryptography was created in 2013 and was based on an Internet meme from a Shiba Inu
- “I’ve become a meme, a short-lived destroyer,” Musk tweeted cryptically
- Musk was previously sanctioned by the SEC for material tweets about Tesla
- Some expressed admiration and concern for their ability to move markets
Elon Musk has broken his silence on Twitter to promote the “prank” cryptocurrency DogeCoin, sending the asset up to 60% and feeling concern over Tesla’s CEO’s ability to move markets.
Musk, who earlier this week had promised to stay “off Twitter for a while,” returned early Thursday with a series of memes promoting the obscure and frequently ridiculed cryptocurrency.
DogeCoin has the same technical fundamentals as the best-known cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, but it is little used and has been traded for less than a penny. It was created in 2013 and was based on a popular internet meme of a Shiba Inu dog.
Musk’s tweets included an image of a rocket soaring beyond the moon with the text “Doge” and an image of the lion king being shown holding the Doge meme dog.
Elon Musk has broken his silence on Twitter to promote the “prank” cryptocurrency DogeCoin, sending the asset up to 60%
“Dogecoin is popular cryptography,” another tweet read. “You don’t have to be a gigachad to own.”
“No highs, no lows, just Doge,” he added in a tweet at 12.27 on the west coast.
His tweets continued for hours, until after two in the morning, Pacific time. “I’ve become a meme, a shorts destroyer,” he said in a final tweet, apparently in reference to short sellers betting on stocks.
Musk is notoriously antagonistic about short-term sellers, and his own Tesla was for years one of the shortest stocks on the market.
It was unclear if anyone is selling DogeCoin or if there are even markets to do so by volume.
Regardless, Musk’s tweets sent DogeCoin once again, after dropping all-time highs last week following other cryptic Tweets from Musk that appeared to support cryptography.
DodgeCoin rose 60% on Thursday after falling last week’s all-time highs. At the top, a month-long view of the price of the currency shows recent extreme volatility
At one point, DogeCoin rose 60 percent during the day, with a total market capitalization in excess of $ 6 billion.
In comparison, the Bitcoin market cap was nearly $ 700 billion on Thursday.
Musk has previously sanctioned the Securities and Exchange Commission for his material tweets about Tesla, where he is CEO and major shareholder.
It was agreed with the SEC over the complaints, which were spurred on by a tweet reflecting on the company’s deprivation and another to share production projections.
Listed companies are regulated in the way they provide forward-looking statements, to ensure that investors have equal access to news that can move stock prices significantly.
Cryptocurrencies are not regulated in the same way and Musk’s tweets about DogeCoin are unlikely to violate any law or regulation, regardless of whether he owns the cryptocurrency.
Still, his ability to move markets at ease with his tweets attracted admiration and concern from observers.
‘Do you feel that Elon Musk is always trying to prove that his opinion controls the market? It undermines credibility, “one person tweeted.
“We saw this from Warren Buffett in 2011, where everyone was in a hurry to follow their investments until he started doing it intentionally. Eventually, the market didn’t care,” one person tweeted, warning that “there are a limit ”to Musk’s influence via Twitter.
Musk also received criticism last week, when his tweet about GameStop and the Reddit forum WallStreetBets helped fuel a frantic rally in actions of the struggling video game retailer.
Shares of GameStop, which traded at about $ 4 last summer, rose to $ 483 last week before falling on Monday. Shares fell another 40 percent Thursday afternoon, to around $ 57.