The value of the niche cryptocurrency Dogecoin surged over 30% on Monday after Elon Musk, Twitter CEO, replaced the platform's blue bird logo with an image of a shiba inu, the symbol associated with the digital coin.
This development followed a recent request by attorneys for Twitter and Musk for a federal judge to dismiss a $258 billion lawsuit filed in 2022. The suit accuses the billionaire of manipulating the token's price, leading to a more than 36,000% increase.
After the logo change, Musk shared a meme about the switch with his 133.5 million Twitter followers. The shiba inu image was only visible to some Twitter users, including those accessing the platform through its website.
Musk has been promoting Dogecoin for years, and his occasional tweets about the token-created as a joke in 2013-have consistently caused fluctuations in its value. CoinMarketCap.com lists Dogecoin as the eighth most valuable cryptocurrency, boasting a market cap exceeding $13 billion.
In December 2021, Tesla announced it would accept Dogecoin for select merchandise. Musk tweeted that Tesla would "see how it goes," prompting the cryptocurrency to climb over 20%. When Musk revealed that Dogecoin payments were live in January 2022, the coin's value increased by up to 15%.
Tesla still holds digital assets, including Bitcoin, and continues to accept Dogecoin as payment for some products.
"We have not sold any of our Dogecoin," Musk stated during an earnings call last year. "We still have it."
In a court filing on Friday, Musk's lawyers characterized his tweets about the coin as "innocuous and often silly."
However, Musk's support for the coin extends beyond social media posts, as both Tesla and the Boring Company are named in the lawsuit.
Musk has also indicated that he personally owns Dogecoin. In response to a photo of himself alongside News Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch, Musk simply tweeted: "Dogecoin."
