Aussie creator of Dogecoin labels Elon Musk ‘a self-absorbed grifter’

The reclusive creator of the world’s most talked about cryptocurrency has emerged from the shadows to destroy Elon Musk.

Jackson Palmer, the product manager from the NSW Central Coast who famously created Dogecoin as a “piss-take” before distancing himself from the cryptocurrency, has emerged from the shadows to take a stunning shot at Elon Musk.

Musk, the billionaire Tesla CEO, has jokingly called himself the “Dogefather” after using his incredible reach — including almost 55 million Twitter followers — to boost and at other times cripple Dogecoin’s value.

Created by Palmer and American Billy Markus while Palmer was working for Adobe in Sydney in 2013 as a way of “taking a jab” at all the new alt-coins that were coming on a market dominated by Bitcoin, Dogecoin started soaring in value after it became a favourite of a rabid digital community — and was repeatedly spruiked by Musk.

Investors who held $US1000 ($A1280) of the currency on January 1 would have had $US112,500 ($A144,500) in their wallets by early May as its price soared.

But the volatility of the coin was shown as it jumped ahead of Musk appearing on American TV show Saturday Night Live and then subsequently crashed during the episode when he finished a sketch on the digital currency by describing it as a “hustle”.

Musk continued to use Dogecoin as his personal play thing this week when he caused its price to recover some of the losses of the week before and jump by as much as 20 per cent when he tweeted: “Working with Doge devs to improve system transaction efficiency. Potentially promising.”

Elon Musk has been trashed by the Aussie creator of Dogecoin.

It appears Palmer has had enough. According to screenshots captured by several outlets, Palmer tweeted: “Reminder: Elon Musk is and always will be a self-absorbed grifter.”

He replied to the tweet, saying “removing this in 1min as that’s all I have to say and I enjoy the quiet life”.

In a third tweet he added: “Ps. SNL episode was cringe, bro.”

Palmer has largely been underground since telling Nine Newspapers in 2018 he was disillusioned by what Dogecoin had become.

“It was a piss take,” he said. “My whole point of dogecoin was taking a jab at all these alt-coins that were coming on the scene — like Initial Coin Offerings are today — and, you know, basically making a cash grab.

“So I made the joke and it was me taking the piss out of really scammy cryptocurrency back then. But then it quickly turned into a legitimate thing … and at that point, I was like, ‘Oh my god, now I feel responsible for this joke’. I feel responsible for this economy.”

Jackson Palmer; founder of virtual currency Dogecoin, in Sydney. Picture: James Croucher

A screenshot of Jackson Palmer's since-deleted tweets.

Palmer missed out on cashing in on Dogecoin’s incredible rise to become the fourth-highest valued cryptocurrency in the world because he gave away the coins he had to charity.

“Back in the day, I had a few million dogecoin, which was nothing. It was like five or ten grand’s worth. And I gave it all away to charities that we were supporting early on,” he says.

“I thought … how long can it last? I was about a month into it and I thought dogecoin can last maybe a couple of months; people aren’t going to remember it anymore in a year, why would I hold onto it? So, sadly, I have no dogecoin,” he said.

“Unlike most people who have created cryptocurrencies, I’m not some baller getting around in a Ferrari. The joke is on me, firmly. That being said I feel like I’d be a bit of a hypocrite if I was like some rich crypto guy off the back of a joke that was me poking fun at crypto.”