Elon Musk breaks his very short silence on Twitter to promote DogeCoin “cryptocurrency meme” – causing the asset to grow 60% amid concerns about the ability of founder Tesla to move markets so easily
- Musk sent a lot of tweets on Thursday, claiming DogeCoin cryptocurrency “joke”
- He followed his oath to take a break from Twitter after fueling the GameStop frenzy
- DogeCoin grew by up to 60% following its tweets, to a market capitalization of 6 billion dollars
- The crypto was created in 2013 and is based on an internet meme of a Shiba Inu
- “I became a meme, a destroyer of shorts,” Musk wrote on Twitter
- Musk was previously sanctioned by the SEC for material tweets about Tesla
- Some expressed both admiration and concern about its ability to move markets.
Elon Musk broke his silence on Twitter to promote the “joke” cryptocurrency DogeCoin, sending assets up to 60% and raising concerns about the ability of the Tesla CEO to move markets.
Musk, who earlier this week promised to stay “on Twitter for a while,” returned early Thursday with a slew of memes promoting obscure and often ridiculed cryptocurrency.
DogeCoin has the same technical foundation as the more popular cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, but it is little used and has been traded for a long time for less than a cent. It was created in 2013 and is based on a then popular internet meme of a Shiba Inu dog.
Musk’s tweets included an image of a rocket rising next to the moon with the caption “Doge” and an image of the Lion King showing himself supporting the dog in the Doge meme.
Elon Musk broke his silence on Twitter to promote the “joke” cryptocurrency DogeCoin, sending the asset up by 60%
“Dogecoin is the crypt of people,” he read in a tweet. “You don’t have to be a gigachad to be a prisoner.”
“No highs, no lows, only Doge,” he added in a tweet at 12.27 on the west coast.
His tweets continued for hours, until after 2:00 a.m. Pacific time. “I became a meme, destroyer of shorts,” he said in a final tweet, apparently referring to the short sellers who bet against the shares.
Musk is notoriously antagonistic about missing sellers, and his own Tesla has been one of the strongest stocks on the market for years.
It was not clear if anyone was selling DogeCoin in short or if there were even markets to do so in bulk.
Regardless, Musk’s tweets sent DogeCoin up again, after last week’s all-time decline, following other cryptic Musk tweets that appear to support the crypto.
DodgeCoin rose to 60% on Thursday after falling from a record high last week. Above, a month-long picture of the currency’s price shows recent extreme volatility
At one point, DogeCoin grew 60% for that day, with a total market capitalization exceeding $ 6 billion.
By comparison, the market capitalization of Bitcoin was nearly $ 700 billion on Thursday.
Musk has previously imposed sanctions on the Securities and Exchange Commission for his material tweets about Tesla, where he is CEO and major shareholder.
He settled with the SEC over the complaints, which were spurred on by a tweet meditating on the deprivation of the private company and another sharing production projections.
Publicly traded companies are regulated in the way they provide forward-looking statements, to ensure that investors have equal access to news that can significantly move stock prices.
Cryptocurrencies are not regulated in the same way, and Musk’s tweets about DogeCoin are unlikely to be a violation of any law or regulation, whether he owns the cryptocurrency.
However, his ability to move markets at ease with his tweets attracted both admiration and concern from observers.
“Does it feel like Elon Musk is always trying to prove that his opinion controls the market?” It undermines credibility, “one person wrote on Twitter.
“I saw this from Warren Buffett in 2011, where everyone was in a hurry to follow his investments until he started doing it intentionally. In the end, the market just doesn’t care, “one person wrote on Twitter, warning that there is a limit” to Musk’s influence via Twitter.
Musk also attracted criticism last week, when his tweet about GameStop and the Reddit forum WallStreetBets helped fuel a frantic rally in the actions of the video game retailer.
GameStop shares, which traded around $ 4 last summer, rose to $ 483 last week before dropping Monday. The stock fell another 40 percent on Thursday afternoon to about $ 57.