Dogecoin surges after Shiba Inu replaces Twitter bird Logo
3 Min Read
Dogecoin jumps on Tuesday after Elon Musk replaced Twitter's blue bird by the Shiba Inu dog meme.
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This mobile phone app screen shot shows the logo for Dogecoin, the currency advertised as the one "favored by Shiba Inus worldwide"in New York, Tuesday, April 20, 2021. (AP)
A meme-inspired cryptocurrency's price jumped on Tuesday after Elon Musk replaced the iconic blue bird logo with the Dogecoin cryptocurrency meme dog, despite Musk being sued over his previous promotion of the coin.
Last year, Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion and has since fired roughly half of the workforce, launched a contentious new paid subscription system, and brought back banned users, including former president Donald Trump.
Read: Musk expects WH retaliation for reviving Trump's Twitter account
Whether this decision is permanent, an April Fools' joke, or one of Musk's stunts just for kicks, changing the logo to a Shibu Inu dog caused the price of dogecoin to jump by more than 20%, from below $0.08 to more than $0.10.
Musk has long used Twitter for self-promotion and humour, occasionally promoting the highly unstable dogecoin currency that was initially created as a joke.
A Dogecoin investor who claims having lost massive amounts of money because of Musk's activities is suing the social media giant's owner for $258 billion, but the latter has dismissed those claims.
Musk issued a petition to a US court to dismiss the lawsuit filed against him over claims that he lured them into a pyramid scheme despite knowing that the cryptocurrency had no value.
Read: Musk seeks to move trial out of San Francisco
The Shiba Inu dog meme became popular in 2013 after posters on forums began using photos of the Japanese dog breed with broken-English messages.
Later that year, the cryptocurrency was launched as a joke and remained largely valueless for years. However, in May 2021 its value briefly rose to a record $0.73 after Twitter CEO suggested his auto company, Tesla, could start accepting it as payment.
The value quickly dropped and investors accused Musk of manipulating the token's value to make a fast profit, a "pump and dump".
Musk responded that he pumps but does not dump, and he is committed to crypto.
The logo change prompted a large number of messages featuring the meme dog, some being sarcastic.
"Why do I get the feeling the Doge icon was added so when you search 'Elon' and 'Doge' the story of his racketeering lawsuit will be buried," tweeted comedian Jesse McLaren.
