Doge surges after memecoin advocate Musk agrees to buy Twitter

DOGECOIN, the cryptocurrency with a Shiba Inu meme that has long been a favourite of Elon Musk, surged almost 30 per cent after the billionaire entrepreneur agreed to buy Twitter.

The meme coin climbed as high as 17 cents. It was a standout on a day when other cryptocurrencies from Bitcoin and Ether to Solana and Polkadot remained relatively flat.

Musk said on Twitter in January that Dogecoin could be used to buy Tesla merchandise. Musk, a frequent booster of Dogecoin on social media, has hinted at the move for some time.

"Elon has openly supported Dogecoin and previously talked favourably of this token," said Teong Hng, chief executive of Hong Kong-based crypto investment firm Satori Research. The "market is anticipating that he may incorporate Dogecoin as a payment system, hence this rally".

Musk has been an early corporate champion of adopting digital currencies and has helped spur the popularity of Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency started as a joke in 2013.

"This is very much speculation, to my knowledge Elon has not talked about Dogecoin integration plans," said Noelle Acheson, head of market insights at Genesis Global Trading. "But the possibility, even if it is remote, is enough to get traders excited about the potential gain in DOGE adoption."

Musk has roiled crypto markets in the past. In February 2021, Tesla said it had purchased US$1.5 billion in Bitcoin and planned to accept it as a payment, triggering a rally in its own stock as well as the currency. But Musk did an about-face the following May, sending the value of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies sliding.

Bitcoin slid early on Monday (Apr 25) by as much as 3.3 per cent to US$38,223, the lowest since Mar 15, and at one point was down more than 20 per cent from last month's high. It was little changed after paring the earlier loss. BLOOMBERG