Ever dreamed of buying your shiny new Tesla with a meme coin? Well, get ready, because that dream might soon become a reality.
Elon Musk‘s affection for Dogecoin (DOGE), the original meme cryptocurrency and the market leader by capitalization, is no secret. At a recent visit to the Berlin gigafactory, when asked about the possibility a Tesla could be purchased with Doge, Musk said that might happen. “Well, you know, at some point, I think we should enable that. You can buy Tesla Merch with DOGE, which is cool,” Musk said.
The news sent Doge on a bit of a rally and not for the first time. Several Doge-loving statements in the past by Musk have caused the coin to spike, one of those instances being the announcement of Tesla’s acceptance of Dogecoin payments for Tesla merchandise, which caused its price to surge in December 2021.
Musk also revealed that he first began taking a liking to Doge following requests from some of his factory workers to endorse the cryptocurrency. The Tesla CEO also seized the moment to show off his Doge credentials, repeating the meme-based currency’s rallying cry of “Dogecoin to the moon.”
Musk might be a Dogecoin evangelist, but should Tesla accept payment with Doge, it won’t be the first car maker to do so. Eyeing young crypto millionaires, after announcing support for crypto payments last October, last month, Ferrari said its luxury cars can be purchased with Dogecoin in the U.S. Ferrari stated that their decision was prompted by requests from both the market and dealers, as many of their clients have ventured into cryptocurrency investments.
Nevertheless, some investors remain cautious about Musk’s statement, with numerous traders accusing him of promoting the dog-loving coin. Crypto influencer Joe Nakamoto ridiculed Musk’s characterization of Dogecoin as “the people’s crypto,” arguing that only Bitcoin (BTC) deserved such a title. In 2021, Tesla actually began accepting Bitcoin payments before Musk reversed the policy because of BTC’s famously negative environmental impact.
The leading cryptocurrency has been hitting new highs in recent weeks although it has pulled back a bit since peaking at $73,750.07 last week. Meanwhile, Doge, while up by ~95% over the past 12 months, still sits 81% below the all-time high of $0.7376 notched in May 2021.
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