Elon Musk's cryptic tweet sees Doge gain amidst crypto downturn
Elon Musk posted a cryptic tweet on Wednesday that saw dogeoin (DOGE-USD) gain whilst the rest of the cryptocurrency market slumped after Tuesday's broad sell-off on US markets.
Dogecoin increased in value after the Tesla (TSLA) boss tweeted: "High time I confessed I let the Doge out".
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The tweet saw dogecoin's value spike 0.1%, a 2.8% rise in the past week, as the rest of the cryptocurrency market turned red.
Before Musk's tweet, dogecoin was down 3% on the day, trading at $0.082. But since his cryptic message the memecoin rose to $0.086.
High time I confessed I let the Doge out pic.twitter.com/TAi4p1khAd
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 22, 2023
In comparison, bitcoin (BTC-USD) has fallen from its early week high of above $25,000 to $24,170, a drop of 2% in the past 24 hours. Ethereum (ETH-USD) also fell 2% in the past day, to $1,646, as of the time of writing.
On Wednesday, the global cryptocurrency market cap stood at $1.15tn, down 2.0% in the past 24 hours, according to data from Coingecko.
The crypto markets tend to mirror US equities. On Tuesday, US stocks tumbled as the prospect of higher-for-longer interest rates and letdowns from big-box retailers dampened the mood on Wall Street.
Tuesday saw the worst day yet for US markets in 2023. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) fell 82 points, or 2%, to close at 3,997, its sharpest drop since the market was selling off in December. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) lost 2.1%, while the Nasdaq composite (^IXIC) sank 2.5%.
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Musk has been periodically putting out tweets reinforcing his connection to dogecoin.
Last week, he shared a photo of his Shiba Inu dog seated in a large armchair behind a desk, with a comment saying: “The new CEO of Twitter is amazing".
The iconic dogecoin dog is a Shiba Inu breed.
The new CEO of Twitter is amazing pic.twitter.com/yBqWFUDIQH
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 15, 2023
Last week's tweet also pushed up the price of dogecoin.
Speculation now abounds over whether Musk will allow dogecoin to be used for tipping and micro-payments on Twitter.
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