The price of cryptocurrency Dogecoin skyrocketed Thursday morning after Tesla CEO Elon Musk referred to the coin on Twitter, the latest example of volatility within cryptocurrency trading that can be influenced by individual personalities.
The value of the digital coin jumped up more than 16% to approximately 42 cents just hours after Musk’s tweet.
“How much is that Doge in the window?” Musk wrote on Twitter, with an image suggesting he is a “cyberviking.”
Cryptocurrency markets have seen high volatility this week, with Bitcoin losing 20% of its price in just 24 hours and hitting its lowest levels in months, while dozens of other digital coins all lost value on Wednesday.
ALLEGED $335 MILLION BITCOIN ‘MIXER’ ARRESTED AFTER ANALYSIS OF DECADELONG BLOCKCHAIN DATA
Dogecoin started as a joke in 2013, intended to serve no purpose other than create a few laughs by making fun of the wild speculation around cryptocurrencies at the time. The brand of the coin features the face of a Shiba Inu dog with a silly spelling of “dog.” According to Dogecoin co-founder, Billy Markus, the name of the currency is pronounced “dohj coin.”
Musk has become famous recently for his opinions and commentary on cryptocurrencies and tweeted earlier this month that he had spoken with the team of Doge developers about how to make the coin better. However, he also said on NBC’s Saturday Night Live that the value of the currency was largely speculative at this point.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Musk also prompted a selloff of Bitcoin last week based on a tweet of his that speculated that Tesla had sold, or could sell, its holding of the cryptocurrency because of the harm it causes to the environment. Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin require large amounts of computing energy to generate new digital coins.
