Dogecoin, the meme-based bitcoin rival that saw huge growth through 2021, has soared after Elon Musk revealed doge can now be used to buy Tesla
The dogecoin price, far down from its peak of around 70 cents per doge set in May last year, jumped around 30% directly after Musk’s tweet announcing Tesla’s dogecoin support but has since fallen back and is now up around 13% on this time yesterday.
Meanwhile, the bitcoin price has dropped back toward $40,000 per bitcoin, struggling along with other cryptocurrencies following a huge sell-off over the last two months that’s wiped around $1 trillion from the combined crypto market .
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“Tesla merch buyable with dogecoin,” Musk posted to Twitter. Tesla’s so-called cyberwhistle, a Texas belt buckle and its electric quad bike can now be bought with dogecoin, according to the Tesla website.
Tesla’s dogecoin support has been in the works since December when Musk tweeted that the company would “see how it goes” with the cryptocurrency payment option and it’s as yet unclear if or when Tesla could add a dogecoin payment option for its cars.
Musk’s announcement provoked a mixed reaction from the crypto community, with bitcoin supporters decrying his continued support of the tongue-in-cheek dogecoin.
“Doge now has more institutional adoption than bitcoin,” one popular crypto account replied to Musk’s tweet .
Last month, Musk predicted that dogecoin, or perhaps some other cryptocurrency, will eventually become the official currency of Mars —something Musk has previously hinted at with a proposed project to use his rocket company SpaceX to “put a literal dogecoin on the literal moon.”
Over the last year, Musk has repeatedly called for dogecoin developers to upgrade the meme-based cryptocurrency in order to better compete with the likes of bitcoin and ethereum. Musk thinks dogecoin should cut fees and speed up transaction times in order to “beat bitcoin hands down.”
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Last year, Tesla began accepting bitcoin for car purchases but Musk halted bitcoin support less than two months later, citing bitcoin’s huge energy use and outsized carbon footprint. Research out last year showed each bitcoin transaction consumes an average of 1,173 kilowatt hours of electricity—worth over $100—though attempts to accurately gauge the energy demands of the bitcoin network have been criticized by many in the crypto community who see them as unfairly harsh.
“Cryptocurrency is a good idea on many levels and we believe it has a promising future, but this cannot come at great cost to the environment,” Musk said in a statement at the time.
Tesla continues to hold over $1 billion worth of bitcoin on its balance sheet after buying it around 12 months ago.
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