Dogecoin (DOGE) price surged as much as 20% on Wednesday after Tesla (TSLA) boss Elon Musk called himself the "Dogefather" on Twitter (TWTR) ahead of his appearance on US comedy show SNL.
He tweeted "The Dogefather" to his 52 million followers, "SNL May 8."
The meme-inspired crypto rose from $0.26 to $0.32, pushing it back to record highs it enjoyed two weeks ago, after declines last week.
The cryptocurrency, which first started up as a joke in 2013, now has a market cap of more than $50bn (£36bn), thanks to recent surges.
It was boosted by the GameStop saga at the start of January 2021, soaring over 800% as Reddit users, who also pumped stocks such as GameStop (GME) and AMC (AMC), drew their attention to the coin.
In February, Musk began tweeting about it. Musk sent out a flurry of tweets about the cryptocurrency, first tweeting just the word “Doge”, followed by “Dogecoin is the people’s crypto”, and “No highs, no lows, only Doge."
Suban Abdulla
Wed, April 28, 2021, 2:49 PM·2 min read
BTC-USD
-0.36%
GME
+5.23%
TSLA
-4.53%
DOGE-USD
+14.1826%
+1
Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and Tesla. Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and Tesla. Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
Dogecoin (DOGE) price surged as much as 20% on Wednesday after Tesla (TSLA) boss Elon Musk called himself the "Dogefather" on Twitter (TWTR) ahead of his appearance on US comedy show SNL.
He tweeted "The Dogefather" to his 52 million followers, "SNL May 8."
The meme-inspired crypto rose from $0.26 to $0.32, pushing it back to record highs it enjoyed two weeks ago, after declines last week.
The cryptocurrency, which first started up as a joke in 2013, now has a market cap of more than $50bn (£36bn), thanks to recent surges.
It was boosted by the GameStop saga at the start of January 2021, soaring over 800% as Reddit users, who also pumped stocks such as GameStop (GME) and AMC (AMC), drew their attention to the coin.
In February, Musk began tweeting about it. Musk sent out a flurry of tweets about the cryptocurrency, first tweeting just the word “Doge”, followed by “Dogecoin is the people’s crypto”, and “No highs, no lows, only Doge."
The rise follows similar trends in global financial markets and a revival of interest in cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin (BTC-USD) and ethereum (ETH-USD) — the world's two biggest cryptocurrencies — both reached new all-time highs recently, a rally that coincided with the stock market listing of Coinbase (COIN).
It is not the first time the billionaire has influenced cryptocurrency markets. Musk has previously also sent supportive tweets about flagship crypto Bitcoin.
His involvement in price spikes have led to speculations that he is being investigated by US regulators for potential market manipulation.