Despite the recent collapse of the cryptocurrency market, which was largely blamed on Tesla CEO Elon Musk, it appears the billionaire tech tycoon isn’t in a mood to back down from tweeting about the digital assets. Many investors had criticised Musk’s tweets as attempts to “manipulate” the crypto market and asked him to stop tweeting on the matter. But Musk has ignored the requests and again spoken about his new favourite, Dogecoin, albeit jokingly. He called an idea for a hot tub to harness the heat generated during mining of the meme currency a “great idea”.
Great idea
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 29, 2021
Musk’s comment about Dogecoin on a tweet by crypto trading app Blockfolio saw the Dogecoin price in INR rise from Rs 20.84 before he tweeted to immediately peaking to Rs 22.41 within hours of his tweet. At the time of writing the report, Dogecoin was trading at Rs 22.10.
His comment has also got more likes and retweets than the original suggestion by Blockfolio. A number of people took Musk’s comment as a signal for a coming bullrun for the cryptocurrency, or Musk’s Boring Company or Tesla accepting Dogecoin as payment.
DOGE TO THE HOT TUB!!
— DogeCoin Chairwoman (@ChairwomanDoge) May 29, 2021
Great idea
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 29, 2021
Great idea
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 29, 2021
project for @boringcompany
— aj (@alexkgbg) May 29, 2021
The electric vehicle-making company had initially announced it will accept payments in Bitcoin, the world’s largest and most popular cryptocurrency, but later backtracked its announcement on the back of climate concerns.
Musk tweeted a statement from Tesla that fossil fuels were driving Bitcoin mining. The Tesla CEO, however, said he supports cryptocurrencies but they need to be energy efficient to become the “future currency of the world”.
Tesla & Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/YSswJmVZhP
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 12, 2021
To be clear, I strongly believe in crypto, but it can’t drive a massive increase in fossil fuel use, especially coal
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 13, 2021
These decisions and his gig on the popular TV show Saturday Night Live, where he called Dogecoin “a hustle”, accompanied by China’s tightening regulation over crypto trading are blamed for triggering a downward spiral in the market.
Musk’s company SpaceX is already planning to send a mission to the Moon completely funded by Dogecoin. Geometric Energy Corp has booked a rideshare mission to the Moon aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
SpaceX launching satellite Doge-1 to the moon next year
– Mission paid for in Doge
– 1st crypto in space
– 1st meme in spaceTo the mooooonnn!!https://t.co/xXfjGZVeUW
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 9, 2021
The mission is set to be launched in the first quarter of 2022. But since Musk tweeted the news on April Fool’s Day, it’s wise to wait until more information is shared.