Following recent praise from tech magnate Elon Musk, Dogecoin, the cryptocurrency inspired by the Shiba Inu meme, experienced a significant price surge.
On March 13, during an event at a Tesla factory in Berlin, Elon Musk hinted at the possibility of Dogecoin becoming an accepted payment option for Tesla purchases in the future.
Responding to a query from the audience about the potential for purchasing Tesla vehicles with DOGE, Musk expressed support for the idea, stating, “I think we should enable that at some point,” and humorously added, “Dogecoin to the moon.”
Musk explained his backing for Dogecoin arose from conversations with employees on the factory floors, asserting, “DOGE is the people’s crypto, and I support what they want.” He contrasted this with the affluent demographic typically supporting Bitcoin, emphasizing his commitment to supporting Dogecoin based on the preference of his workforce.
This isn’t Tesla’s first experiment with Dogecoin; the company previously began accepting DOGE for merchandise payments in January 2022.
Dogecoin’s Recent Rally
Following Musk’s comments, Dogecoin’s value soared by 14%, climbing from $0.166 to $0.189 in the Asian markets on Thursday morning.
This rally marks a 43% gain for Dogecoin over the last two weeks, buoyed by Bitcoin’s record-breaking performance this week.
At the time of this report, Dogecoin was trading at $0.184, although it still trails its May 2021 peak of $0.731 by 75%.
Dogecoin had been hovering around $0.080 for the initial months of the year before its price escalated towards the end of February.
Currently, Dogecoin ranks as the tenth largest cryptocurrency by market cap, which stands impressively at $26 billion, as per CoinGecko data.
Rising Popularity of Meme CoinsLately, meme coins have been gaining traction, with Shiba Inu, PEPE, and BONK among those experiencing notable growth. PEPE has risen by 17% today, while dogwifhat (WIF) has astonishingly increased by 35%, and BONK has grown by 17% in the past day.
The collective market cap of all meme coins is now $65.5 billion, accounting for about 23% of the total cryptocurrency market, according to CoinGecko.
The broader cryptocurrency market cap is approaching its all-time high, currently sitting at $2.90 trillion. Bitcoin reached a new high of $73,700 in Asian trading on Thursday, although Ethereum has fallen below the $4,000 mark.
Other cryptocurrencies like Binance Coin (BNB) and Solana (SOL) have also seen significant gains, with increases of 14% and 10%, respectively.