Elon Musk sends Dogecoin market cap soaring by $10 billion in 15 minutes
In just 15 minutes an off-hand tweet from Elon Musk caused the total value of "joke" cryptocurrency Dogecoin to soar by more than $10 billion.
After shocking Bitcoin bulls yesterday by pulling Tesla out of an agreement to accept cryptocurrency as payment for cars, Mr Musk doubled down on his Dogecoin promotion by hinting that he would join the effort to develop the coin.
Shortly before 8:45am AEST, Mr Musk tweeted "Working with Doge devs to improve system transaction efficiency. Potentially promising."
READ MORE: Dogecoin is now worth $77 billion
At that point, the market capitalisation – or the total value of the Dogecoin – was hovering around $55 billion.
Just 15 minutes later, at 9am AEST, Dogecoin's total value had skyrocketed to almost $66 billion as keen Twitter watchers purchased more Dogecoin in anticipation of the price soaring.
A single Dogecoin is currently worth just under 50 cents.
READ MORE: Ethereum creator now a billionaire at just 27 years old
Dogecoin's market cap soared after Elon Musk's tweet. CoinMarketCap
What is Dogecoin?
Dogecoin is one of the most unlikely winners of the internet's fascination with cryptocurrency.
Created as a joke to parody the wild adoption of different cryptocurrencies, Dogecoin was built and released by two software engineers in 2013.
Its logo is a cartoon face of a Shiba Inu dog, made popular by the wildly successful "Doge" meme which showed a pictured of the dog with text such as "much wow" and "so excite".
The original "Doge" meme which gained popularity in 2013. Wikimedia Commons
The logo of Dogecoin borrows heavily from the meme.
Similar to Bitcoin, Dogecoins exist as digital tokens on the internet and utilise blockchain technology where every transaction is kept on a digital ledger.
Dogecoin is not connected to any country or major bank, and is exchangeable for some tangible objects.
Share a tip-off, video or photo with us
