Why Elon Musk’s Dogecoin Tweets Have Hit a Bitcoin Nerve
When will the penny drop for cryptocurrency speculators that maybe the joke’s on them?
A crowd pleaser.
Photographer: Yuriko Nakao/Getty Images EuropeImagine a team of smartly dressed bankers pitching an investment to Wall Street financiers only to be left raging when a weirdo in a dog costume walks in and gets the money. That’s how some corners of the cryptocurrency market are reacting to celebrities led by Elon Musk tweeting about Dogecoin, a tongue-in-cheek, meme-ified version of Bitcoin launched in 2013 with a Shiba Inu as its mascot.
The billionaire’s endorsement last week of Doge as “the people’s crypto” — cheered by KISS rocker Gene Simmons and rapper Snoop Dogg — sent trigger-happy Reddit traders stampeding into the canine-themed coin. As a result, its price is up around 1,000% year-to-date, eclipsing Bitcoin’s rise. Musk, reveling in the social-media excitement and speculation, tweeted: “I am become meme, destroyer of shorts.”