Elon Musk is still the Dogefather.
Dogecoin shot up more than 20% Tuesday, following a tweet from Musk that Tesla will begin accepting the cryptocurrency as payment for merchandise.
Doge jumped from just under 16 cents to more than 21 cents at its peak. It has since seen some profit taking and, as of 9:15 a.m. ET, was trading at just under 20 cents, a 21% spike.
The surge of interest in Dogecoin comes as other cryptos are down across the board. Bitcoin continues to trade below its 200-day moving average and Ethereum, Cardano, Solana, and all other major coins are showing 24-hour losses.
Musk, the freshly minted Time Person of the Year for 2021, has been a notable influencer when it comes to Dogecoin. In April, he posted a series of Doge images and memes on Twitter that spurred his followers into buying the crypto, resulting in gains of 600% in one week.
In May, though, while hosting Saturday Night Live, he downplayed Doge, sending it into a tailspin from which it has never recovered. Before his SNL gig, it spiked as high as 74 cents, and Doge-watchers were convinced it would top $1.
Dogecoin is a cryptocurrency that no one was meant to take seriously. Ten thousand new Dogecoins are programmed to be issued every minute for the rest of eternity, meaning the value was never meant to hold. But mentions from everyone from Musk to Mark Cuban to Guy Fieri have kept it in the spotlight, and traders have decided to defy logic.
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