A Brief History of Elon Musk’s Recent Market-Moving Tweets

When Elon Musk tweeted “use Signal,” earlier this year, he was talking about the messaging app made by a nonprofit organization. But soon, the stock price of Signal Advance Inc., a tiny and entirely unrelated medical device company in Texas, was up 5,100%. Such is the power of Musk, the world’s richest person, and his more than 46 million Twitter followers.

In recent weeks Musk’s tweets have added billions to the market value of publicly traded companies. And after saying he would be off Twitter “for a while” last week, he was back within a day, promoting cryptocurrency Dogecoin. Musk’s tweets—with some assistance from rapper Snoop Dogg and Kiss bassist Gene Simmons—have lifted the shiba inu-themed cryptocurrency by more than 1,500% since the start of 2021. On Wednesday, Musk said he even bought some Dogecoin for his toddler—boosting the coin another 15% in 20 minutes.