Dogecoin’s price experienced a surge on Monday after the token’s mascot, a Shiba Inu internet meme, replaced Twitter’s typical blue bird logo on the website. The inclusion of the Dogecoin mascot caused the token’s price to rally over 20%, reaching $0.092 in less than an hour, according to CoinGecko. As of this writing, the price has nudged higher and currently sits at around $0.095.
Twitter responded to the mascot’s inclusion with a poop emoji when asked for comment by Decrypt. Shortly after the change was made, Twitter CEO Elon Musk tweeted an image apparently acknowledging the buzz around the move.
The appearance of the Dogecoin mascot on Twitter is the latest chapter in the relationship between Musk and the canine-themed cryptocurrency. Tesla has admitted to holding Dogecoin as well as Bitcoin in the past, and in May 2021, Musk’s Boring Company began accepting Dogecoin as a payment method.
— db (@tier10k) April 3, 2023
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 3, 2023
Musk’s sway over Dogecoin can be traced back to when he first referenced the token publicly on Twitter in 2019, stating “Dogecoin may be my fav cryptocurrency.” The fervor surrounding Dogecoin reached a climax in May 2021, leading up to Musk’s appearance on the late-night comedy show “Saturday Night Live.” The token climbed as high as $0.73, according to CoinGecko.
On Friday, Musk asked a Manhattan judge to throw out a $258 billion lawsuit accusing him and Tesla of running a pyramid scheme to support the price of Dogecoin. Lawyers for Musk and Tesla called the lawsuit a “fanciful work of fiction” and argued that there was nothing unlawful about tweeting support for a legitimate cryptocurrency.
