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Mooners & Shakers: Dogecoin dips as Elon Musk considers stepping down as Twitter CEO

Dogecoin is dragging the chain and losing plenty, quite possibly because of the actions of one of its greatest fans, Elon Musk.

Rob Badman
Dogecoin really doesn't seem to be enjoying any pre-Christmas cheer. Picture: Getty Images
Dogecoin really doesn't seem to be enjoying any pre-Christmas cheer. Picture: Getty Images
3 min read
11:27AMDecember 20, 2022.
Updated 12:00PMDecember 20, 2022
Stockhead

The price of Dogecoin (DOGE) is in the dog house, and it’s quite possibly, once again, because of that man Elon Musk.

The Tesla/SpaceX/Twitter CEO appears likely to be stepping down from his head position at the social-media platform after posting the following poll:

More than 17.5 million people have voted, with more than 57 per cent opting for him to pack up and head back to Tesla HQ.

Since taking over Twitter, Musk has copped heavy criticism regarding some policy changes, such as the suspension of certain accounts belonging to journalists allegedly stalking the billionaire.

The American Civil Liberties Union, for instance, stated that Musk and Twitter was setting “a dangerous example” by discouraging freedom of information.

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As for DOGE, Musk’s favourite cryptocurrency, it’s double-digits dumped overnight (-10.6 per cent at the time of writing). The meme coin had been surging earlier in the month based on the idea/hope that it would be prominently integrated into the Twitter platform as a payments option.

That could still play out, although there have also been rumours of a separate “Twitter Coin” that could instead be used for that purpose.

Meanwhile, an interesting candidate or two for the Twitter CEO role have put up their hands. Edward Snowden, the NSA-whistleblowing American and naturalised Russian computer scientist, for instance, would like to be paid in Bitcoin for the role.

Not sure how Snoop Dogg would like to receive his salary. But it makes for an interesting guess.

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Top 10 overview

With the overall crypto market cap at $US823 billion, down 2.4 per cent since this time Monday, here’s the current state of play among top 10 tokens – according to CoinGecko.

Source: CoinGecko
Source: CoinGecko

While DOGE is clearly the worst performer in the majors over the past day, the rest of them aren’t exactly showing much strength, either.

“FUD” (fear, uncertainty and doubt), and perhaps genuine cause for concern, is affecting the crypto market and its overall sentiment right now.

The FTX “contagion” likely still has a way to play out, but exactly where, and how dramatically, are the questions.

Here’s something we didn’t know. Jo Johnson, the brother of former British PM Boris Johnson, has since September been an advisor to a crypto firm called Bitfinity – based in the UK and part of the Binance group.

Anyway, “Lord Johnson of Marleybone” as he’s also apparently known, just resigned from that position and was keen to stress that he no longer has any role with it or any related entity. Perhaps this is insignificant news, but it’s just something else to add to the mix.

Binance has been experiencing hefty withdrawals of funds from customers over the past week, but the firm’s CEO, CZ, has been seeking to allay fears of any instability.

As Capriole Fund founder Charles Edwards points out, though, rumours alone can be particularly damaging in the space.

In reference to Binance FUD, he wrote: “I haven’t seen anything backed by data that is legitimately concerning, but when fear is great enough, it doesn’t matter.”

Grayscale planning 20pc return to GBTC investors?

In other news, according to various mainstream media reports, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (owned by the Digital Currency Group) is considering a tender offer that would see a return of investor capital representing 20 per cent of the massive $US10.7 billion trust.

And this would apparently be in the likely event that the SEC continues to block Grayscale’s plans to convert its trust to a spot ETF.

There seem to be concerns about what a 20 per cent sell-off of GBTC, which holds more than 643k BTC, would mean for an already depressed crypto market. That said, details about how the funds return would actually work, remains to be seen.

Meanwhile (as reported by The Block’s Frank Chaparro, below) Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein said:

Uppers and downers: 11–100

Sweeping a market-cap range of about $US5.56 billion to about $US294 million in the rest of the top 100, let’s find some of the biggest 24-hour gainers and losers at press time. (Stats accurate at time of publishing, based on CoinGecko.com data.)

DAILY PUMPERS

• XDC Network (XDC), (market cap: $US357 million) +10 per cent

• ImmutableX (IMX), (mc: $US315 million) +2 per cent

• Bitcoin SV (BSV), (mc: $US873 million) +1 per cent

DAILY SLUMPERS

• Toncoin (TON), (market cap: $US3.3 billion) -15 per cent

• Trust Wallet (TWT), (market cap: $US610 million) -14 per cent

• Chain (XCN), (mc: $US506 million) -12 per cent

• Chiliz (CHZ), (mc: $US502 million) -10 per cent

• The Sandbox (SAND), (mc: $US680 million) -9 per cent

Around the blocks

Some randomness and pertinence that stuck with us on our morning moves through the Crypto Twitterverse …

This content first appeared on stockhead.com.au

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Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/stockhead/mooners-shakers-dogecoin-dips-as-elon-musk-considers-stepping-down-as-twitter-ceo/news-story/f86e7b3e7c8c5f7a3c6d525b06e8327c