Elon Musk says he’s going to put Dogecoin on ‘the literal moon’
It might be April Fools' Day for a few more hours, but this is no joke.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted on Thursday (April 1) he would put “a literal Dogecoin” (pronounced “dohj coin”) on the “literal moon.”
SpaceX is going to put a literal Dogecoin on the literal moonApril 1, 2021 See more
Although some questioned whether Musk was joking in light of it being April Fools' Day and his reputation for making off-the-cuff remarks, others, including CNBC space reporter Michael Sheetz, suggested Musk could very well be telling the truth.
“I know it’s April Fool’s but I don’t for a second question that he means this,” Sheetz tweeted, to which Musk replied: “After all, SpaceX’s first payload to orbit & back was a wheel of cheese.” (SpaceX did in fact deliver a wheel of cheese to orbit in 2010, during a test flight of its Dragon cargo spaceship.)
After all, SpaceX’s first payload to orbit & back was a wheel of cheese …April 1, 2021 See more
The self-proclaimed “techno-king of Tesla,” Musk, 49, is an ardent supporter of cryptocurrencies, including Dogecoin and bitcoin. In February, Tesla announced that it had purchased $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin. One month later, Musk said Tesla would accept it as payment for its vehicles.
You can now buy a Tesla with BitcoinMarch 24, 2021 See more
SpaceX has not yet made a similar announcement.
Musk also famously launched his own cherry-red Tesla Roadster into space with the first test flight of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket, in February 2018. The Roadster has since passed by Mars and is still orbiting the sun.
Related: SpaceX founder Elon Musk is now the richest person in the world
Dogecoin, which originally started as a joke, was created in 2013 by software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer. The cryptocurrency, which uses a Shiba Inu as a mascot, is “an open source peer-to-peer digital currency, favored by Shiba Inus worldwide,” a description on Dogecoin.com states.
The cryptocurrency can be obtained in several different ways: purchased, traded on an exchange or “mined.”
This is not the first time Musk has mentioned Dogecoin’s presence on the moon. In February, Musk tweeted a meme of a Shiba Inu in a spacesuit on the moon holding a Dogecoin flag.
Literally pic.twitter.com/XBAUqiVsPHFebruary 24, 2021 See more
The price of Dogecoin skyrocketed following Musk’s tweet, as its value rose nearly 30% to $0.70 just minutes after Musk’s proclamation.
It’s unclear if Musk was serious about sending Dogecoin to the moon, but the company could potentially make that happen, given its lunar exploration plans.
In August 2020, Space.com reported that SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft could reach the lunar surface with NASA payloads as soon as 2022. And in February, NASA said it would use SpaceX to provide launch services for parts of its ongoing Gateway project, an upcoming outpost that orbits around the moon.
As Business Insider notes, the physical coins are sold as memorabilia but do not function as currency.
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One Tweet Is All It Takes – Elon Musk Sends Dogecoin’s Price Up 30% In Minutes Again
Despite recent reports suggesting that Elon Musk’s tweets may no longer have the desired effect on DOGE’s price, today’s tweet sent the cryptocurrency surging over 30% within minutes.
What Happened: Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) and Space X CEO tweeted earlier about the meme-based cryptocurrency Dogecoin, and its price surged to a high of $0.70011 – a level last seen in mid-February.
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“SpaceX is going to put a literal Dogecoin on the literal moon,” stated Musk on Twitter.
Why It Matters: Even though Musk’s most recent tribute to Dogecoin happened to be on April Fool’s day, the fact that DOGE hit a six-week high shortly after his tweet was no joke.
Year to date, the cryptocurrency has returned 1375%, with January’s Reddit fuelled rally accounting for the majority of its gains. Since then, the coin has seen most of its on and off-price action after a tweet from its most influential supporter – Elon Musk.
A recent survey of traders from U.K-based cryptocurrency exchange EXMO revealed that the majority of market participants believed that the outlook for DOGE was grim if Musk stops tweeting about it.
See also: How to Buy Dogecoin (DOGE)
Only 14% of the respondents believed that the cryptocurrency would continue to grow without support from Musk and other well-known personalities, and some were confident that DOGE could be classified as a “useless asset.”
At press time, the price of DOGE had retraced down to $0.0619. However, the meme-based cryptocurrency still kept most of the gains associated with the Musk tweet and was up 14.21% in the past 24-hours.
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Dogecoin Jumps After Musk Promises ‘Literal’ Moonshot
Cryptocurrency markets have matured in the past 12 months, with macroeconomics and blockchain-technology developments influencing prices more than ever and new Wall Street firms buying in seemingly every other day.
So it’s refreshing that dogecoin (DOGE), which was created in 2013 as a joke, continues to be a source of amusement even as it, too, shows signs of leaving its playful puppy days behind.
The digital token, symbolized by the Shiba Inu dog breed, shot up to a six-week high Thursday after a tweet by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur whose DOGE-friendly announcements earlier this year have also led to rapid price increases.
“SpaceX is going to put a literal dogecoin on the literal moon,” Musk tweeted at around 10:25 UTC (6:25 a.m. ET) today. Musk’s tweet did not explain how this seemingly impossible feat would be accomplished, as by definition digital currencies have no physical structures and therefore aren’t literal anythings. Perhaps the tweet being sent on April Fool’s may have had something to do with it.
April Fool’s Day joke or not, the tweet by the noted DOGE whisperer sent the cryptocurrency bounding from roughly $0.053 to $0.070, according to data provider CoinGecko. The 32% rise took the cryptocurrency to the level last seen on Feb. 13 and marked the end of a week-long slumber in the range of $0.050-$0.055. The token’s market capitalization is now $8.2 billion.
Dogecoin 5-minute chart Source: TradingView
Musk has previously called dogecoin “the people’s crypto” and the cryptocurrency of Mars.
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The billionaire investor also warned of too much concentration in the cryptocurrency in February, triggering a price drop. Last month, Musk supported the idea of DOGE’s listing on the U.S.-based Coinbase exchange.
While it appears as though the price of dogecoin is at the mercy of Musk’s usually humorous tweets, largely because of the publicity he’s given it, the digital token is now actually being used for purposes that are not just about speculation and yuks.
Companies such as medical-supplier CovCare, sports brand Wooter Apparel and basketball team Dallas Mavericks have adopted dogecoin as an alternative means of payment. Meanwhile, the surge in the token’s price has caused technical development on the cryptocurrency to resume, threatening to turn the lighthearted token into a much more serious breed of DOGE.
Should that happen, the world of crypto will have a little less joy in it.