What happened
Dogecoin (DOGE 14.99%), the meme-based cryptocurrency that caught fire early last year, was moving higher today after Elon Musk finally completed his acquisition of Twitter (TWTR 0.66%) last night.
Musk has been a longtime backer of Dogecoin and has often tweeted about it on the social media site, which has led to pops in Doge at various stages.
As of 11:52 a.m. ET, Dogecoin’s price was up 9.9% over the last 24 hours.
So what
There was no commentary from Musk on Dogecoin this morning or last night, but holders of the cryptocurrency, which was originally created as a joke, seem to think Musk’s ownership of the platform will be bullish for the coin. Dogecoin was trending on Twitter this morning, with a number of backers posting memes of the coin and Musk on the social media site.
As of July, Tesla, the electric carmaker that Musk also runs, still held Dogecoin, and Musk said at the time that the company had not sold any of its Dogecoin. Tesla’s own website says that the only cryptocurrency it accepts is Dogecoin.
With the help of Musk’s boosting the coin last year, Doge topped out a $0.74 last May, though it has since fallen by nearly 90% as the crypto boom has gone bust.
Now what
Now that he owns Twitter, there’s also the possibility that Musk could make the platform friendlier to cryptocurrency, in particular Doge. Tech blogger Jane Manchun Wong tweeted on Monday that the company was working on a digital wallet that supports crypto deposits and withdrawals.
Based on Dogecoin’s surge last year, it didn’t take much to send the memecoin soaring, but it may be hard to catch lightning in a bottle twice, as crypto enthusiasm has clearly waned since then. Still, a few tweets by Musk in support of Dogecoin would undoubtedly give it another boost.
Jeremy Bowman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Tesla and Twitter. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
