Dogecoin up 20% after Elon Musk says Tesla will accept cryptocurrency for payments

A day after being voted Person of the Year by prestigious Time magazine, billionaire Elon Musk returned to the cryptocurrency market. Through his Twitter, Musk said that Tesla will now accept Dogecoin (DOGE) as a means of payment.

According to Musk, Tesla will sell “some products” in exchange for DOGE. With this, the company intends to test the cryptocurrency-meme and assess its potential as a means of payment.

However, the CEO did not explain what products, or models, these will be. Currently, Tesla has four models of electric vehicles, in addition to manufacturing solar panels and roofs.

Tesla will make some merch buyable with Doge & see how it goes

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 14, 2021

Some users asked if Cybertruck, for example, could be paid with DOGE. However, Musk did not respond to these inquiries.

As with everything involving Elon Musk and Twitter, the message had an immediate impact on the price of DOGE, which jumped 22% after the tweet. 

Elon Musk and DOGE

The relationship between Musk and the cryptocurrency-meme is public and notorious, but DOGE has emerged as its favourite. The billionaire has already claimed that DOGE could overturn BTC and become the most used cryptocurrency on the market.

On several occasions, Musk posted tweets related to DOGE – and they all made the price of cryptocurrency skyrocket. Indeed, the CEO has already been accused of using his influence on Twitter, where he has nearly 50 million followers, to generate market manipulations.

However, Musk was also involved with DOGE at the protocol level. Billionaire supported a reform of the Dogecoin Core that would reduce transaction time as well as network costs. The update was eventually implemented.

This is the second time that one of Musk’s companies has caused an increase in the price of DOGE. The same move occurred in May, when SpaceX created the DOGE-1 mission. The exploration mission to the Moon is being financed in part with DOGE.

This week, Musk was named “Person of the Year” 2021 by Time magazine. According to the magazine, the billionaire was chosen for his ambition to save the planet through his companies, with influence on Earth and beyond.

The publication highlights his eccentric way of doing business that always moves the stock market. This power, as seen in the most recent episode, is even greater when exercised on behalf of cryptocurrencies-meme.