Elon Musk is creating buzz again.
In his new tweet, the legendary South African entrepreneur and ardent supporter of Dogecoin announced that “Tesla merch can be bought with Doge, soon SpaceX merch too.”
Musk’s announcement immediately made headlines worldwide, boosting Dogecoin’s market value, with the coin’s price jumping by around 10% to nearly 9 cents, before settling to a gain of about 7.7% amid a bear market.
Although such a boost is weaker than in previous similar instances – for example, in December 2021, DOGE gained 25% after Musk confirmed that Tesla will accept the coin for merchandise – it still shows the community’s appetite for the token, which has always been perceived on the lighter side.
Musk first showed his interest in DOGE, which self-describes as ‘an open-source peer-to-peer cryptocurrency, favored by shibas worldwide’, in 2019. He also said in an interview with Time Magazine dated December 13, 2021 that Bitcoin is not an optimal means of payment and is considering allowing DOGE payments for Starlink subscriptions.
Fundamentally, bitcoin is not a good substitute for transactional currency. Even though it was created as a silly joke, dogecoin is better suited for transactions,he noted.
At the beginning of May, a cartoon was made depicting the bromance of Dogecoin’s hallmark Shiba Inu who meets Elon Musk, driving around town in his Tesla. The animation prompted Dogecoin to tweet,
much elon, such doge.. wow such drama what is even happening... apparently, these guys are going to make this a series. hopefully, other dimensions and times accept dogecoin.
Despite the Musk-DOGE bromance going strong, Dogecoin’s overall performance has been heavily affected by the ongoing cryptowinter. While on April 29, the coin traded at $0.1354, its current price stands at just $0.08174.
Another set of data shows that Dogecoin lost over 55% in value between May 8 and May 13.
Other crypto giants are not doing much better, with Bitcoin trading below $30,000 and Ethereum fluctuating around $1,800 press time.
