Elon Musk’s Pup Pump; The New Crypto Billionaires

Elon Musk has still got it when it comes to influencing cryptocurrency markets. Four days after the Tesla CEO sent a tweet that nodded to the digital currency SHIBA INU (SHIB), the coin is still rallying. It’s currently up 47% in the past 24 hours and 232% since Sunday. Admittedly, it doesn’t take much to create big swings in the currency—it’s worth just fractions of a cent—but the surge is notable for fans of the cryptocurrency, which is now worth $9.5 billion in total, according to CoinMarketCap.

Musk’s tweet didn’t directly mention crypto. It was just a photo of his Shiba Inu puppy, Floki, with the caption “Floki Frunkpuppy.” But that was enough to send the token, which is based on the Ethereum blockchain, soaring. Part of Musk’s influence over this particular currency comes from his support of dogecoin, a cryptocurrency created as a joke and inspired by an internet meme that features a Shiba Inu dog. But dogecoin now has a market cap of more than $32.8 billion, making it the eighth-largest cryptocurrency in the world, according to CoinMarketCap. Movie theater chain (and leading memestock) AMC Theaters even said Wednesday that it would accept dogecoin payments for digital gift cards. 

Much of dogecoin’s rise has been fueled by Musk, who has tweeted endorsements and memes since 2020 about the cryptocurrency and dubbed himself the “Dogefather.” Musk, whose tweets habitually move markets, seems to be taking the same tactic with SHIB.