Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and Twitter, has caused quite a stir in the cryptocurrency world after he changed his Twitter icon to that of Dogecoin (DOGE), leading to a sudden surge in the meme coin’s price. The move was met with criticism from Bitcoin purist Jimmy Song, who believes that Musk’s actions were a deliberate attempt to boost the price of DOGE for his own financial gain.
The unexpected change in Musk’s Twitter icon resulted in the price of DOGE soaring more than 22% in just a matter of minutes, with approximately $1.7 billion being pumped into the digital asset’s market capitalization. This brought the price of DOGE to the highest level it had reached since December 2022.
While Musk has been an ardent supporter of DOGE for some time now, his interest in the cryptocurrency dates back to early 2021 when he tweeted ‘Doge’ and posted a meme featuring the DOGE logo. This caused the value of DOGE to skyrocket by over 50%.
At present, DOGE has managed to retain the price it acquired following the icon update, with the cryptocurrency currently trading at $0.10. The price is up 3.28% for the day, and it recorded significant gains of 30.37% across the previous week and 31.23% over the past 30 days, according to the latest charts retrieved on April 5.
The machine learning algorithms at the crypto tracking platform PricePredictions are optimistic about the future of DOGE, with projections indicating that the price of the cryptocurrency on April 30, 2023, would amount to $0.103899. However, these predictions are slightly less bullish at press time, setting the possible price of Dogecoin at $0.102147 for the same date.
The sudden surge in the price of DOGE has led to speculation about the future of the cryptocurrency and Elon Musk’s role in its growth. Bitcoin purists like Jimmy Song accuse Musk of manipulating the market for his own financial gain, while supporters of DOGE argue that it is a legitimate cryptocurrency with a bright future.
Regardless of the controversy surrounding DOGE and Elon Musk, it is clear that the meme coin has gained significant momentum in recent months. With the cryptocurrency market continuing to expand, it will be interesting to see how DOGE and other digital assets fare in the years to come. Whether this growth is sustainable or a temporary bubble remains to be seen, but the future of DOGE and the cryptocurrency market as a whole will undoubtedly be shaped by the actions of influential figures like Elon Musk.