Host Elon Musk during the monologue on Saturday, May 8, 2021.
Will Heath | NBCUniversal
The price of dogecoin popped on Monday afternoon following news that Twitter has accepted Elon Musk’s buyout deal.
The meme cryptocurrency jumped as much as about 27% after the announcement that Twitter will be purchased by an entity owned by the Tesla CEO.
Dogecoin was last up 24.3%. Meanwhile, Twitter shares ended the day 5.6% higher.
Dogecoin, the original meme asset, is based on the 2013 Internet meme doge and was created in jest in the same year. It gained some relevance last year after the Tesla CEO endorsed it and continued hyping the cryptocurrency on social media.
Around that time, Musk became something of a cryptocurrency market mover with his tweets about dogecoin and bitcoin. In May of last year, his posts fueled dogecoin’s rally to its all-time high of 67 cents, per Coin Metrics.
Twitter’s former CEO and co-founder, Jack Dorsey, stepped away from the company in November to focus on efforts at his payments company, which has since rebranded to Block (from Square) to reflect broader ambitions in cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.
In addition to being a dogecoin influencer, Musk’s Tesla is one of the biggest corporate buyers of bitcoin. Those who hope to see Twitter integrate more crypto native features will be keeping an eye on whether or how Musk prioritizes crypto. Bitcoin’s censorship-resistant nature on the surface aligns with Musk’s vision for a free speech utopia.
“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” Musk said in a statement Monday.