Elon Musk throws his weight behind dogecoin in crypto price war

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has issued a grim warning about the impacts of crypto - as Dogecoin and Shiba inu surge in price.

Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, speaks at the Washington Convention Center. Picture: AFP

Dogecoin has rallied on the cryptocurrency charts after dropping down a position and being overtaken by a spin-off of itself.

The digital coin is now ranked ninth in the world in terms of market capitalisation in the crypto space, up from 10th position on Thursday.

It originally started out as a joke in 2013 but now has an impressive market cap of US$39 billion (A$51 billion).

However, that wasn’t enough to stop its rival, shiba inu, briefly overtaking it on Wednesday.

According to CoinDesk, doge surged to $0.335 in the past 24 hours, hitting a two month high since August 20.

Elon Musk has weighed in on the impacts of crypto trading on mental health. Picture: AFP

That was a 22 per cent gain in a single day. The dogecoin price is up over 11,000 per cent since this time last year.

Tech billionaire and crypto enthusiast Elon Musk threw his weight behind doge, helping the coin reach its two month high and securing its position as number nine.

He has previously been called “the dogefather” because of his support for the coin.

If I send you 2 Doge, will you promise to send me 1 Doge?

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 27, 2021

Billy Markus, the software engineer who co-created the dogecoin and who tweets under the handle Shibetoshi Nakamoto, warned about crypto scammers to his followers on Thursday.

In response, Elon Musk replied: “If I send you 2 Doge, will you promise to send me 1 Doge?”

The Tesla CEO also agreed with a tweet by Nakamoto who wrote, “pretty sure following crypto prices will cause mental health issues.” Musk responded by writing, “100%”.

Experts warn trading in ryptocurrencies can be highly stimulating, mood altering, and addictive.

Highs and lows

Doegcoin has struggled in recent weeks, with its spin-off, shiba inu, briefly overtaking it on the crypto leaderboard.

Shiba inu now sits slightly under dogecoin, with a market cap of $34 billion.

Forbes reported that Elon Musk threw his weight behind dogecoin to boost the currency in what they dubbed “meme price wars”.

Doge in the last 24 hours following Musk’s tweet.

In late 2013, US software engineer Billy Markus and Australian entrepreneur Jackson Palmer created dogecoin as a joke to make fun of the wild speculation in cryptocurrencies at the time.

They used a Japanese dog, a shiba inu, as a mascot for their coin.

However, in August 2020, an anonymous person who called themselves “Ryoshi” created a spin-off of dogecoin, called shiba inu or SHIB after the mascot.

It is now rivalling its predecessor.

In just over a year, SHIB has nearly caught up to doge which has been on the market for seven years.

The cryptocurrency market leaderboard.

The dog cryptocurrency shiba inu (SHIB) has continued to smash records in its best ever week where it is up more than 111 per cent and hit a new high on Thursday.

According to CoinGecko, SHIB hit US$0.00008616, which is an improvement of 114 million per cent compared to its low last year in November.

Shiba inu is surging amid rumours that it is going to be added to Robinhood’s trading exchange with other cryptocurrencies already listed on the platform.

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— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 24, 2021

Elon Musk momentarily scuppered SHIB’s rise on Monday, pulling it down by 10 per cent, after a savage tweet.

He told shiba inu enthusiasts that he didn’t own a single one of their coins, as can be seen in the tweet above.

Originally published as Elon Musk throws his weight behind dogecoin in crypto price war