Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on Tuesday that electric carmaker will accept Dogecoin as payment for its merchandise, sending the meme-based cryptocurrency soaring by 24 percent. Musk, who was named Time Magazine's "Person of the Year' on Monday said during an interview with the publication that the meme-based Dogecoin is much better than Bitcoin for everyday payments.
The cryptocurrency market has seen major fluctuations this year, often in response to Musk's tweets. This time too it wasn't any different after the cryptocurrency enthusiast made the comments, which sent Dogecoin on a rally. However, Dogecoin will be accepted only on a test basis for the time being.
Goodbye Bitcoin, Welcome Dogecoin
During his interview to Time magazine, Musk said that Bitcoin, is the world's most valued cryptocurrency and is popular among investors because each token currently stores large amounts of fiat currency. But he feels that for daily purchases Dogecoin makes for a more favorable choice.
"Bitcoin is not a good substitute for transactional currency. Even though it was created as a silly joke, Dogecoin is better suited for transactions. The total transaction flow that you do with Dogecoin, like transactions per day, is much higher potential than Bitcoin," Musk said during the Time's interview.
He later tweeted to make official that Tesla will henceforth be accepting Dogecoin as payment for its merchandise. "Tesla will make some merch buyable with Doge & see how it goes," Musk said in a tweet.
Since then Dogecoin has soared around $0.20 after the tweet, while Bitcoin and Ethereum have continued to fall for the last 24 hours, according to coinmarketcap.com data.
Bitcoin's price fell 2.94 percent in the last 24 hours and was trading at $47,329.58 at the time of writing this article. Meanwhile, Bitcoin's dominance in the crypto market is currently at 41.44 percent, up by 0.23 percent in the last 24 hours, data from coinmarketcap.com showed.
The Big Mover
Musk has been backing Dogecoin for the past over one year. His tweets on the cryptocurrency, including the one where he called it the "people's crypto", have helped Dogecoin soar 5,859% over the past year, according to data from coinbase.com. However, Musk didn't specify what merchandise it will include.
Tesla's merchandises start from $50 and go up to as much as $1,900, which can now be bought with Dogecoin. Following Musk's tweet that sent Doge on a rally, the verified Twitter account of the meme coin posted a clipping of Musk's interview, thanking the tech mogul for "dropping some straight facts" about the Dogecoin.
In October, Musk had called Dogecoin "the people's crypto". Recently, US-based movie theatre chain AMC Theatres listed DOGE as an official payment option for gift card purchases.
Cryptocurrencies have drawn the ire of regulators worldwide but have still managed to trade at record highs as investors rush to profit from wild swings in prices. Except for Dogecoin other meme coins such as Shiba Inu, Dogelon Mars, and Samoyedcoin have all had their prices drop in the last 24 hours.
