Elon Musk has changed Twitter's bird logo to a shiba inu dog sign, causing a more than 30 per cent increase in the price of dogecoin.
The billionaire’s decision followed his attorneys urging a federal judge on Friday (March 30) to dismiss a $258 billion (£207 billion) lawsuit accusing the businessman of manipulating Dogecoin's price and raising it by 36,000 per cent.
Musk posted a meme about the new Twitter logo on his own account, which has more than 133 million followers, after it was changed.
The cryptocurrency was created in 2013 as a joke coin, and Musk has frequently tweeted about it. Most of his tweets have caused its price to change.
Cryptocurrency, sometimes called crypto-currency or crypto, is any form of currency that exists digitally or virtually and uses cryptography to secure transactions. Cryptocurrencies don’t have a central issuing or regulating authority, instead using a decentralised system to record transactions and issue new units.
So what’s the history and value of Dogecoin? Here’s all you need to know.
What is Dogecoin?
CoinMarketCap.com says Dogecoin is the ninth most valuable cryptocurrency, with a market cap of almost $13 billion (£10.4 billion).
Software developers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer created the cryptocurrency as a "joke" to mock the irrational investment in cryptocurrencies at the time. It is regarded as the first "meme coin" and the first "dog coin”.
For the majority of its history, Dogecoin has been considered a funny "memecoin," appreciated by its community, but with only marginal value. That changed in 2021: even though each coin is only worth a few cents, Dogecoin is now among the top ten largest cryptocurrencies by market cap, with a total value that has exceeded $50 billion (£40 billion).
Online cryptocurrency platform Coinbase says the world is filled with a lot of Dogecoin. The currency was developed to be numerous, in contrast to Bitcoin, which is intended to be rare and resistant to inflation. There are approximately 130 billion doge in circulation, and miners add 10,000 more per minute.
How did Dogecoin become so valuable?
Doge's value is determined by the market based on supply and demand. With the massive and expanding supply, a tremendous increase in demand was required to push prices as high as they have been recently.
Prices increased by around 7,000 percent in the first quarter of 2021 due to retail investors on Reddit, the wider crypto boom, and months of tweets from Musk that appeared to be made in jest. These culminated in his appearance on Saturday Night Live in May 2021.
Does Elon Musk own any Dogecoin?
Musk has previously said that he personally owns Dogecoin. The SpaceX founder revealed that he invested in Dogecoin in 2021, but did not disclose how many coins he bought.
