Dogecoin tumbles after Elon Musk calls it a 'hustle'

New York

THE value of dogecoin dropped sharply in early US hours on Sunday, after Tesla chief and cryptocurrency supporter Elon Musk called it a "hustle" during his guest-host spot on the Saturday Night Live comedy sketch TV show.

Dogecoin was quoted as low as US$0.47 on crypto exchange Binance, down 28 per cent from levels around US$0.65 before the show.

Cryptocurrency enthusiasts had for days been eager to see what he would say, after his tweets this year turned the once-obscure digital currency into a speculator's dream.

Asked "what is dogecoin", Mr Musk replied, "It's the future of currency. It's an unstoppable financial vehicle that's going to take over the world."

When a show cast member Michael Che countered: "So, it's a hustle?", He replied: "Yeah, it's a hustle." And laughed.

The unconventional chief executive officer has posted numerous comments about cryptocurrencies on Twitter and criticised regular old cash for having negative real interest rates.

His cryptic tweets "Doge" and "Dogecoin is the people's crypto" that month kicked off a rally in dogecoin - created as a parody on the more mainstream bitcoin and ethereum.

Last Thursday, he tweeted: "Cryptocurrency is promising, but please invest with caution!" with a video clip attached in which he said, "it should be considered speculation at this point. And so, you know, don't don't go too far in the crypto speculation ..."

But he also said, in the video, that cryptocurrency has a "good chance" of becoming what he called "the future currency of the Earth".

On crypto data tracker CoinGecko.com, dogecoin has jumped more than 800 per cent over the last month and is now the fourth-largest digital currency, with a market capitalisation of US$73 billion.

It hit a record high last Thursday above US$0.73. It has overtaken more widely used cryptocurrencies such as litecoin and tether.

Tesla said in February it bought US$1.5 billion worth of bitcoin and would soon accept it as a form of payment for its electric cars, a large stride towards mainstream acceptance. REUTERS