A textless meme of a dog in a T-shirt tweeted by the world’s wealthiest man Elon Musk sent one of the world’s largest cryptocurrencies up 12% Tuesday, the latest instance of tongue-in-cheek social media activity causing big money moves.
THE BIG NUMBER: US$10.2 billion. That’s how much in market capitalization dogecoin has gained since October 4, the day Musk’s intent to close the Twitter deal went public. Its US19.1 billion market cap is roughly the same as Hewlett Packard.
Dogecoin briefly reached a market cap of about US$70 billion last year when it peaked near $0.70 before quickly losing its lustre, falling to as low as US$0.05. Much of dogecoin’s surge came as Musk relentlessly touted the coin. This year has been bleak for crypto, with bitcoin down 57% year-to-date, compared to a 19% loss for the S&P 500. Doge’s rise and fall mirrored that of several other meme assets, including stocks like AMC, Bed Bath & Beyond and GameStop.
The potential dogecoin adoption is one of many changes to his new social network teased by Musk on his Twitter account, with the billionaire also putting out feelers for the return of the short-form video service Vine and a monthly fee for users to retain their verified badges.
This article was first published on forbes.com
Further Reading
Crypto Markets Gain Nearly $100 Billion After Elon Musk’s Twitter Deal Boosts Dogecoin (Forbes)