Elon Musk Again Sent The Dogecoin Price Sharply Higher—After Revealing He ‘Strongly’ Believes In Bitcoin And Crypto

The bitcoin and cryptocurrency roller coaster has continued its wild ride this week, with the “joke” digital currency dogecoin jumping in value.

The dogecoin price has added around 30% over the last 24 hours, climbing after Tesla
TSLA
billionaire Elon Musk said he’s “working with doge devs to improve system transaction efficiency,” adding it’s “potentially promising.”

Musk, who has previously said all of his dogecoin-related comments shouldn’t be taken seriously, exacerbated a cryptocurrency market crash this week when he unexpectedly pulled Tesla support for bitcoin payments—but has now said he “strongly believe[s] in crypto,” though remains concerned about its environmental impact.

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The dogecoin price has climbed back up the cryptocurrency rankings—now the fourth most valuable cryptocurrency after bitcoin, ethereum and binance coin with a total market capitalization of around $70 billion—since Musk tweeted his tongue-in-cheek support of the meme-based digital token.

“The joke is… there are no dogecoin devs,” Pete Rizzo, editor at bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, replied to Musk.

Dogecoin, which has attracted criticism for its lack of development and high token concentration among a small group of accounts, is up a mind-numbing 20,000% on this time last year as people bet the price will continue to climb.

The dogecoin price has exploded through 2021, with traders and investors pouring cash into it from January as part of a retail-led rally fueled by cryptocurrency trading via the likes of commission-free trading app Robinhood.

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However, bitcoin and broader cryptocurrency prices have struggled to regain ground even after Musk tweeted his continued support of the technology.

“To be clear, I strongly believe in crypto, but it can’t drive a massive increase in fossil fuel use, especially coal,” Musk said via Twitter, less than 24 hours after pulling the plug on customers’ use of bitcoin to buy Tesla cars.

In February, Tesla revealed it had bought $1.5 billion of bitcoin and began accepting bitcoin as payment for cars in March, sending the bitcoin price higher by 20%.

“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 earlier this week, sending the bitcoin price sharply lower and under the closely-watched $50,000 per bitcoin level.