Dogecoin surges 11% after Elon Musk announces future Tesla payment option

Dogecoin experienced an 11% surge in value following an announcement by Tesla CEO Elon Musk that the memecoin could potentially be accepted as a payment method for Tesla vehicles in the future.

The significant price increase occurred shortly after Musk, speaking at the Berlin Gigafactory, responded affirmatively to an inquiry about purchasing Tesla cars with Dogecoin. “When can you buy Tesla with Dogecoin? At some point, I think we should enable that,” Musk stated during the interaction, which was later shared on X by user @dogeofficialceo.

Following Musk’s remarks, Dogecoin experienced a significant price surge, jumping from $0.1712 to $0.191 within 30 minutes of the announcement. This 11% increase reflected the investors’ enthusiasm as the video circulated on X.

As of the latest updates, Dogecoin’s trading price stands at $0.188, marking a 9% rise in the last 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap data.

Dogecoin 24-hour price chart | Source: CoinMarketCap

Musk’s interaction further reiterated his support for Dogecoin, highlighting the option to purchase Tesla merchandise using the cryptocurrency. His advocacy for Dogecoin began after receiving suggestions from Tesla Gigafactory employees and SpaceX visitors to adopt it as an official payment mode.

Musk has previously described Dogecoin as “the people’s crypto,” indicating his intention to support a cryptocurrency favored by the general populace over those backed by wealthier individuals.

Tesla officially started accepting Dogecoin for its merchandise on Jan. 14, 2022, emphasizing that only Dogecoin payments would be processed, with no returns for transactions made in other digital assets.

Meanwhile, speculation surrounds the X app and its potential integration of cryptocurrencies following the establishment of an ‘XPayments’ account for an upcoming payment feature. Expected by mid-2024, the specifics of whether this feature will include cryptocurrency payments remain unconfirmed.

Despite Musk’s recent support for Dogecoin, he has expressed a diminished interest in cryptocurrencies more broadly, along with clarifying last year that X would not launch its own crypto token.