James HesterDogecoin (DOGE) has leapt by over 80% in the last 24 hours following a tweet from Elon Musk.
The price, at the time of writing, stands at around $0.25, marking a 27-fold, year-to-date gain and giving it a market cap of approximately $32bn.
Doge barking at the moon
On Thursday, Musk simply tweeted an image of a dog with the tag “Doge Barking at the Moon.” The symbol of Dogecoin is the Shiba Inu dog.
Musk’s supportive tweets for Dogecoin have continued to engender ‘fear of missing out’ (FOMO) among investors in anticipation of further gains. Some fear dogecoin is in a bubble, which will inevitably burst.
The euphoria around dogecoin was continuing on Friday, with one trader on Twitter pronouncing: “Well, it looks like #Dogecoin might reach the moon after all. And if it does, I’ll be going to the moon with it #DogecoinToTheMoon #DogecoinRise.”
The cryptocurrency also took off strongly in February after the Tesla CEO flagged his support, again through Twitter. Cryptocurrencies, in general, have been in sharp focus this week following Wednesday's flotation of crypto exchange platform Coinbase on Nasdaq, with the company valued at over $80bn.
Further gains?
Dogecoin began as a joke several years ago, as a parody on the many altcoins that were springing up at the time.
But ongoing support from the Tesla CEO could ultimately turn out to be a fundamental factor supporting further gains for dogecoin. In February, Tesla revealed it had acquired $1.5bn worth of bitcoin, pushing the crypto to record highs. It raises the possibility that Tesla and similar big corporations may ultimately put cash in other cryptocurrencies, especially given Musk’s vocal support.
