Tesla to Accept Dogecoin? Cryptocurrency Gains 17% After Elon Musk Tweets About Adding it as Payment Method

Elon Musk posted a Twitter poll asking his followers if he should accept Dogecoin as a payment method for Tesla.

Dogecoin, the meme cryptocurrency, fell more than 40% following its biggest promoter, SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk's appearance on Saturday Night Live over the weekend.

The cryptocurrency fell to $0.42 during the broadcast after reaching an all-time high of $0.73 prior to the show on Saturday, May 8, as previously reported. Now, it seems like the self-proclaimed "Dogefather" is helping the popular meme coin recover from its crash with his latest post on Twitter.

'Do You Want Tesla to Accept Doge?'

Elon Musk doge
Twitter

Musk took to Twitter early Tuesday to ask his 53 million Twitter followers whether Tesla should accept Doge as payment for its electric vehicles.

As of publishing, the Twitter poll garnered more than 1.2 million votes with about 77% voting in favor of Musk's company adding doge as a payment option. Here are some of the reactions to Musk's tweet:

The tweet comes a day after Musk announced that SpaceX would accept dogecoin to sendan 88-pound satellite on a lunar mission, called Doge-1, slated to take off early next year. The mission would be fully paid for in the cryptocurrency, allowing it to become both the "first crypto" and "first meme" in space, he noted.

Doge Surges 17% After Musk's Tweet

Moments after Musk's tweet, doge surged 17% from $0.46 to $0.53and is currently trading at $0.51. Any corporate support from Tesla would likely help further accelerate the growth of the cryptocurrency, which was originally created a joke, themed around an internet-famous shiba inu dog. The digital currency has already grown by over 10,000% this year.

This won't be the first time Tesla has accepted cryptocurrency as payment. The company already accepts Bitcoin as payment and has earned considerably more in profit from its investment in digital currency than it has from its core business of selling electric vehicles.

The backing of Tesla gave significant legitimacy to bitcoin and contributed to its recent growth. In the few minutes that followed Tesla's announcement in February that it had invested $1.5 billion in the cryptocurrency, its price jumped 14 per cent and took it to what was then an all-time high.

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