Elon Musk, owner of Twitter, chose a dog as the new logo for the social network on Monday evening. But not just any: a shiba associated with a cryptocurrency, dogecoin. The price of the latter immediately soared on Tuesday, April 4. The billionaire is however already prosecuted for the promotion of this digital token.
This decision by Elon Musk to replace the historic blue bird as Twitter’s logo, whether permanent or a short-lived joke, sent dogecoin up 21% to nearly 10 cents, according to CoinMarketCap.
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The Tesla boss, who bought Twitter last October, has long used the platform for self-promotion and humor, sometimes in favor of dogecoin, a very volatile cryptocurrency originally created as a joke.
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The multibillionaire has indicated in the past that he holds part of his fortune in bitcoin. He also discussed the possibility of using dogecoin for online payments, sparking speculation around his vision for Twitter as a “all-in-one app”such as WeChat in China, which offers many services.
An investor who lost money betting on dogecoin filed a lawsuit in June 2022 seeking $258 billion from Elon Musk and his companies Tesla and SpaceX, but the billionaire denied the claims.
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In a legal document added to the docket on Friday, his attorneys called the lawsuits a “fantasy story”. “There is nothing illegal about tweeting cheers or funny images about a legitimate cryptocurrency”they said.
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A multitude of messages on Twitter
Twitter’s logo change prompted a slew of posts featuring the dog, including from Elon Musk himself. He posted a conversation with a user from last year for his 133 million followers, in which he promised to buy Twitter and make the Shiba Inu his logo.
Launched in 2013, dogecoin was an ironic response to two web phenomena: cryptocurrencies, which multiplied in the wake of bitcoin, and montages of a photo of a Shiba Inu dog very popular on the internet.
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Boosted by a certain buying frenzy around improbable values at the start of 2021, as well as by Elon Musk’s multiple positive messages on Twitter, dogecoin had soared to more than 70 cents in May 2021.
“Scam”
During a satirical show, the billionaire sent mixed messages, first calling dogecoin a “unstoppable financial vehicle that will take over the world”Then “scam”, bursting out laughing. The token had then started to retreat.
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“The dogecoin community doesn’t take itself too seriously. They have great memes and love dogs. And I too love dogs and memes”explained the entrepreneur in July 2021 during a discussion with Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter, during an online conference.
He continued to philosophize, chuckling about the likelihood that the “cryptocurrency that started as a joke to poke fun at cryptocurrencies eventually becomes the main cryptocurrency”. On bitcoin, he had assured that he “buying but not speculating”.
