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Elon Musk’s Tesla has officially started accepting Dogecoin (DOGE) as a product payment method. This new development follows a series of teasers from Musk about the potential for such an integration, culminating in a 20% surge in DOGE’s price within the last 24 hours. The cryptocurrency is currently trading at $0.16.
According to the FAQ section on Tesla’s official website, customers can now use Dogecoin to purchase select Tesla merchandise. This payment option is visible next to eligible products on the Tesla shop’s “order” page, displaying the Dogecoin symbol. The FAQ emphasizes that payments must be made from a single Dogecoin wallet and cannot be combined from multiple sources. Moreover, once a purchase is made, it cannot be canceled or returned.
The announcement has sparked a significant reaction from the cryptocurrency community, with DOGE prices experiencing a notable increase. This positive market response reflects the influence of Musk’s endorsements of Dogecoin, which he has frequently supported in public statements and social media.
Dogecoin might be my fav cryptocurrency. It’s pretty cool.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 2, 2019
In March, Elon Musk posted a playful tweet featuring three dogs in green St. Patrick’s Day hats, including a Shiba Inu, the Dogecoin mascot. This tweet sent Dogecoin fans into a frenzy. Musk’s influence over meme coin markets has been a recurring theme, with his tweets often leading to immediate price surges. This trend underscores Musk’s significant impact on financial markets through his social media activity.
This isn’t the first time Musk has changed the meme-coin market, intentionally or by accident. The Floki Inu coin is thought to have been created by a tweet in 2021 showing off his new Shiba Inu dog, which he called Floki after a character from Vikings. On a related note, Baby DogeCoin was born the same day, adding to Musk’s image as the mastermind behind joke coins.
While people who like memecoins enjoyed Musk’s happy tweet, the tech mogul took big steps in another technology area. His new company, xAI, kept its word and made its AI robot, Grok, available to everyone by making it open source.
This move makes a big difference in developing open and honest AI. By making Grok open source, xAI has let anyone see how this vast
Tesla and SpaceX’s Cryptocurrency Holdings
Separately, Arkham, an on-chain intelligence tool, says that blockchain detectives have found the Bitcoin wallets of Elon Musk’s companies, Tesla and SpaceX, which hold more than $1 billion. Based on their research, Tesla’s wallets hold more than $771 million worth of Bitcoin, while SpaceX’s wallets hold about $555 million.
BREAKING: TESLA & SPACEX ARE NOW ON ARKHAM
— Arkham (@ArkhamIntel) March 7, 2024
Arkham has identified the BTC holdings of Tesla and SpaceX. We are the first to publicly identify these holdings on chain.
We believe Tesla currently holds 11.51K BTC ($780M) across 68 addresses, and SpaceX holds 8.29K BTC ($560M)… pic.twitter.com/vwoEJ0h0dS
In May 2022, when the price of Bitcoin fell sharply, both Tesla and SpaceX sold off many of their Bitcoin stocks. SpaceX lost money on these sales, but Tesla made enough to even things out. However, SpaceX’s Bitcoin situation improved by November 2023, which happened to be the same time as the current Bitcoin bull run. According to Arkham’s figures, the price of Bitcoin has almost doubled since then, giving SpaceX a return of $132 million on its BTC assets. On the other hand, Tesla has made $455 million in Bitcoin.
If these results are correct, they show that Tesla and SpaceX’s Bitcoin purchases were bigger than thought before. Analysts used to think that Tesla owned about 9,720 BTC, but they didn’t know how much SpaceX had invested. Arkham’s research shows that Tesla has more Bitcoin, 11,509 BTC.