Musk, a frequent Twitter user and cryptocurrency proponent, polled Twitter followers in May to see if they wanted Tesla to accept dogecoin.
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Inc, announced on Tuesday that the electric carmaker will accept dogecoin as payment for items for a limited time as a test, propelling the meme-based cryptocurrency up 24%.
In a tweet, Musk wrote, “Tesla will make some items buyable with Doge and see how it goes.”
Following the tweet, Dogecoin, a popular cryptocurrency among retail investors, soared to $0.20. According to data from the Coinbase website, Musk’s tweets about cryptocurrencies, including one in which he labelled it the “people’s crypto,” have helped the meme coin rise 5,859 percent in the last year.
Musk did not clarify what products might be purchased using dogecoin, which range in price from $50 to $1,900.
Tesla sells t-shirts, ‘Giga Texas’ belt buckles, and miniature replicas of its vehicles, as well as bizarre limited-edition goods like the ‘Cyberwhistle,’ which is based on the company’s much-anticipated Cybertruck. It recently released a quad bike for kids called the “Cyberquad,” which is based on the truck.
Musk, a proponent of cryptocurrencies, has frequently praised dogecoin and stated that it is superior for transactions, most notably in an interview with Time magazine, which named him “Person of the Year” for 2021 on Monday.
“Bitcoin isn’t a good transactional money substitute,” he explained. In a Twitter poll from May, Musk asked users if they wanted Tesla to adopt dogecoin. During a guest appearance on “Saturday Night Live” in May, he referred to dogecoin as a “hustle.”
In May, the comic sketch TV show “Saturday Night Live” premiered.
Musk, who has more than 66 million Twitter followers, has been heavily involved in this year’s retail trading craze, tweeting about cryptocurrencies and helping to drive up their prices.
The electric vehicle manufacturer has stopped accepting bitcoin for automobile purchases, less than two months after starting to accept the world’s largest digital currency.