Tag: elon musk

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Dogecoin Rallies on the Back of Elon Musk’s Twitter 2.0 Plans

The price of everyone’s favourite dog-themed meme coin, Dogecoin, has surged over the past week on the back of a tweet from the new Twitter owner, Elon Musk. Musk’s tweet got the Doge army’s tails wagging as it outlined his plans for the social media platform, which included a vague reference to payments.

Data from CoinGecko shows Dogecoin’s price jumped from US$0.088 before Musk’s tweet on November 27 to US$0.108 at the time of writing, an increase of 22.2 percent. Over the week, Dogecoin is up a whopping 37.9 percent: a significant increase given the current bear market.

What Did Musk Tweet?

Ever since Musk purchased Twitter last month, Dogecoin enthusiasts have been hopeful that the famously Doge-interested billionaire would somehow integrate the coin into Twitter. 

In his Tweet on November 27, Musk outlined the progress he’d made since taking over the platform and also listed some future plans for what he referred to as Twitter 2.0 — The Everything App.

Some of the new features Musk listed included encrypted direct messages, long form tweets, relaunched ‘Blue Verified’, and a vague and mysterious reference to payments. 

Despite no direct reference to Dogecoin, the mention of payments coming to Twitter was enough to spark FOMO, triggering something of a buying frenzy and causing the meme coin’s price to spike.

Musk’s mysterious slide deck image with a blank space for payments. Source: @elonmusk on Twitter

Earlier Rumours Contribute to FOMO

Previously, just after Musk’s purchase of Twitter in late October, rumours had begun circulating, fuelled by speculation from tech blogger Jane Manchun Wong, that the company had commenced work on a crypto wallet that would allow users to deposit and withdraw crypto. This earlier speculation saw Dogecoin’s price jump 40 percent at the time and may have played a part in the excitement about Musk’s tweet.

Some in the crypto community have poured cold water on the idea of Dogecoin for payments — pointing out that unlike many other distributed ledgers, Dogecoin doesn’t natively support smart contracts and may not be suitable as a payments platform due to shortcomings in security, privacy and capacity for scaling. 

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Crypto News Dogecoin Markets Social media

Dogecoin Surges Over 90% Following Elon Musk’s Twitter Takeover 

With Elon Musk finally taking the reins at Twitter last week, the value of Dogecoin rallied by more than 90% — jumping from US$0.05 to $0.14 briefly on October 30 before dropping to 11 cents at the time of writing.

Seven-day price data for DOGE. Source: CoinMarketCap

Despite the latest surge, in defiance of the prevailing crypto winter, DOGE remains down 84% on its all-time-high of US$0.73 in May 2021 according to CoinMarketCap. Dogecoin now ranks eighth in the market, overtaking Cardano (ADA) with a market cap of US$15.6 million.

Musk has long been a supporter of the meme coin, and has been attributed as the cause of several major DOGE price pumps, including when he first announced his intent to buy Twitter. 

The Twitter acquisition process was fraught, with Musk seeking to renege his offer and then backflipping in early October —ostensibly to avoid legal action brought about by Twitter. At the time, Musk’s confirmation that he’d close the deal led to a small bump in Dogecoin’s value of around 9%. 

Officially becoming Twitter’s boss has come with some surprising learning opportunities for Musk:

Musk loves DOGE

CEO of electric car company Tesla and rocket manufacturer SpaceX, Musk has touted his admiration for Dogecoin in various tweets and interview mentions since 2019. He also began accepting Dogecoin as a payment in exchange for merchandise of his companies. 

Musk had also hinted that he was considering making DOGE a payment option for Twitter users to authenticate their accounts. Since the acquisition was finalised, Cardano’s founder and CEO Charles Hoskinson went as far as predicting DOGE could be integrated with the social media platform:

Musk’s support for DOGE has not been without controversy. In June this year a US$258 billion class-action lawsuit was filed against Musk and his companies, alleging Musk had been essentially running a Ponzi scheme — intentionally manipulating the price of the coin for profit.

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Crypto News Dogecoin Social media

Elon Musk Revives Twitter Buyout – Dogecoin Rallies

twitter logo on mobile phone with Elon Musk in the background

Tesla CEO and part-time crypto memelord, Elon Musk, has sent a letter to Twitter through his lawyers indicating he is now willing to purchase the company for the originally agreed price of $US44 billion, or US$54.20 per share. The letter was also filed with the SEC. 

This surprising move comes after Musk had previously reneged on his offer to buy Twitter, citing the social media giant’s lack of honesty and transparency around the extent of spam bots on the platform.

Immediately following the letter’s release, the price of DogeCoin, the meme coin Musk is so fond of, surged eight percent — changing hands at the time of writing at US$0.0656, up 9.2% on the day.

Doge Coin Chart
Dogecoin chart over the last seven days. Source: CoinMarketCap

Deal to Close Twitter’s Case Against Musk

Musk’s new offer to buy Twitter specifies that the social media platform must immediately drop its legal action against him — relating to the retraction of his previous offer to buy the company — which was due to go to trial in just two weeks.

With Musk’s new offer, it appears the legal action has been dropped, and the deal, as originally agreed, will be closed:

The timing of this new offer begs speculation that Musk was trying to avoid going to trial, perhaps because he received legal advice that he was unlikely to win or in hopes of preventing information from being released at trial (already a large trove of Musk’s private text messages have been released as part of the case).

Musk has given the impression that he simply decided Twitter is, once again, a company he wants to purchase for strategic reasons. Following the release of the letter, Musk tweeted that the purchase of Twitter is an important part of his plan to develop ‘X’, something which he describes as ‘the everything app’.

Musk And Twitter: A Brief History

Musk originally offered to buy Twitter in April of this year, promising his purchase would bring a renewed commitment to freedom of speech on the platform — but the deal quickly ran into problems. 

Just three months after announcing his intention to purchase, Musk was backing out of the deal claiming that Twitter had provided him with misleading data about the prevalence of fake accounts and spam bots.

Twitter, for their part, insisted they had provided accurate data and took their case to the Delaware Court of Chancery to attempt to enforce the contract. 

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Crypto News Social media

Elon Musk Wants Out of $44 Billion Twitter Deal, Twitter Likely to Sue

Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, has retracted his US$44 billion offer to buy Twitter. A notice of termination was filed through the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) alleging that Twitter had breached multiple provisions of its initial agreement with Musk:

‘Misrepresentations’ Made by Twitter

Just three months after Musk’s April announcement that he would purchase Twitter, the billionaire has declined to finalise the deal citing various breaches of the initial agreement, according to an SEC filing from his attorneys:

Twitter … appears to have made false and misleading representations upon which Mr Musk relied when entering into the merger agreement, and is likely to suffer a company material adverse effect.

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP

The SEC filing also suggests Musk had sought the necessary data to independently assess the prevalence of fake or spam accounts on Twitter’s platform. Twitter had reportedly failed or refused to provide this information:

Despite Musk’s change of heart, Twitter has no intentions to go down quietly. Bret Taylor, one of its chairmen, has shared that the company’s board seeks to close the transaction as per the original agreements. The social media giant says it will be pursuing legal action.

Initial Promise All About ‘Free Speech’

Musk initially purchased Twitter with the intention of privatising the social media giant. The billionaire touted the notion that freedom of speech would reign supreme, tweeting that he hoped that “even [his] worst critics remain on Twitter because that is what free speech means”. However, the decision was met with a sizeable backlash suggesting the move would be “dangerous for democracy”.

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Bitcoin Dogecoin Investing

Bitcoin (BTC) Hits New All-Time High as Tesla Drops in a Cool $1.5 Billion

Tesla, the world’s favorite electric car manufacturer, has announced a $1.5 billion injection into Bitcoin, sending the king of cryptocurrencies to new highs.

Within minutes of the announcement, Bitcoin catapulted past its previous high of $42,000, very nearly cracking the $44,000 barrier before a mild correction. It currently sits just about $43,000 but we expect to see some more volatility and further growth as the news spreads.

The official announcement follows several hints dropped by Telsa CEO and world’s richest man, Elon Musk, about his faith in Bitcoin. Two weeks ago, Musk changed his Twitter profile to the hashtag #Bitcoin, followed by a cryptic message simply stating “In retrospect, it was inevitable”. That announcement alone gave Bitcoin a massive 20 percent boost in value, although the gains dissipated quickly.

Musk’s Crazy Crypto Journey

Musk’s support for Bitcoin came at a time when financial markets around the world were faced with mounting instability following the WallStreetBets and GameStop saga that nearly bankrupted massive US hedge fund Melvin Capital. The fallout forced popular trading app Robinhood to halt trading, leading to widespread controversy and driving many traditional investors to consider cryptocurrency.

Musk has also been promoting the least likely of digital assets, the joke meme cryptocurrency Dogecoin (DOGE). He did so in a series of bizarre tweets involving photoshopped Lion King imagery that led many to wonder if Musk’s Twitter account had in fact been hacked. However, it seems the tweets were genuine, helping to send Dogecoin to new highs and secure it a place in the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap. At the time of writing, Dogecoin is up 104 percent in the past 7 days with a market growth of $6 billion.

Buy a Tesla with BTC

Along with the $1.5 billion investment, Tesla has also announced that it plans to start accepting Bitcoin as a form of payment. In its annual financial report, presented to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the company outlines its plan to begin accepting cryptocurrency payments.

“Moreover, we expect to begin accepting bitcoin as a form of payment for our products in the near future, subject to applicable laws and initially on a limited basis, which we may or may not liquidate upon receipt,” the report reads.

The news is undoubtedly one of the biggest boosts for cryptocurrency since Bitcoin was birthed over a decade ago. With the backing of one of the world’s most successful and forward-thinking tech companies, many more businesses around the world are likely to begin accepting payments in crypto.  

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Bitcoin Crypto News Dogecoin

SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk Regrets not Buying Bitcoin in 2013

SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk Regrets not Buying Bitcoin in 2013

Last week, the founder of SpaceX and Tesla, Elon Musk, made headlines across cryptocurrency news outlets and other mainstream media, as he influenced a spike in the market price of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Dogecoin following his activity on Twitter. 

In a Clubhouse chat session on January 31, the billionaire revealed his opinions about the two cryptocurrencies, saying BTC is positioned for mainstream adoption amongst other digital currencies. He also admitted to not buying the leading crypto early when his friends asked him to do so.

Musk Talked Bitcoin, Dogecoin

The CEO of SpaceX mentioned that Bitcoin is a good thing and he doesn’t hold any strong opinion for other digital currencies. “I think bitcoin is really on the verge of getting broad acceptance by sort of the conventional finance people,” Musk said, adding that it’s already late for him to join the Bitcoin bandwagon now. He regretted not buying the cryptocurrency in 2013 when his friend tried to convince him to buy it.

Moving further, Elon Musk explained why he’s always fond of the thirteenth-largest digital currency, Dogecoin (DOGE). According to him, he only tweets about the cryptocurrency occasionally just to make “jokes about Dogecoin.” Notably, the US$5.3 billion market cap cryptocurrency was originally designed as a fun cryptocurrency. 

“But fate loves irony and often as a friend of mine says that the most ironic outcome or I’d say the most entertaining outcome and the most ironic outcome would be that Dogecoin becomes the currency of earth in the future,” Musk added.

Dogecoin update

Last week, the fun cryptocurrency spiked by over 1,000 percent after being hyped by the Redditors. Although the cryptocurrency is still up by 47.7 percent on a 24hour count, the cryptocurrency price has declined to US$$0.04182, according to the information on Coingecko.

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Bitcoin Blockchain Crypto News Reddit

Elon Musk Pumps Bitcoin, Tweet Recorded in Bitcoin Blockchain For Eternity

Bitcoin (BTC) has seen some impressive gains this year, rising by a massive 25 percent in just the first week of January alone. However, nothing quite compares to the massive pump seemingly instigated by Elon Musk this morning when he changed his Twitter profile to the simple hashtag #Bitcoin, sending a strong endorsement of the world’s leading cryptocurrency to his 43.7 million followers. 

The effect of the update by the world’s richest man saw Bitcoin rocket from $32,000 to near $38,000 in a matter of minutes. That’s an almost 20 percent price rise in less than an hour, driven by an incredible $20 billion increase in trading volume. While the price corrected soon after to below $36,000, Bitcoin’s trading volume continues to grow, reaching around $88 billion as more traders across the US begin waking up.

“It was inevitable.”

After changing his Twitter status to Bitcoin, Musk tweeting the phrase “In retrospect, it was inevitable.” The tweet is widely understood to signal that Elon has now bought some Bitcoin, although it may also signal his feelings about the recent GameStop (GME) and Robinhood debacle that exposed the true level of fraud on Wall Street.

Musk has been following the GameStop events as they unfolded this week, Tweeting on Tuesday this week “Gamestonk!”, with a link to the r/WallStreetBets Reddit channel that’s been driving these massive stock market short squeezes.

Documenting Bitcoin, a Twitter account dedicated to keeping a record of Bitcoin events, noted that somebody had embedded Musk’s tweet into the Bitcoin blockchain for eternity. According to this tweet, the entry was inserted by Coin Corner tech lead @zakkdev.

Bitcoin longs and shorts liquidated

As a result of Musk’s tweet, nearly $420 million worth of Bitcoin shorts were liquidated in less than an hour, followed by $120 million in longs liquidated soon after as the price rapidly corrected. On Binance alone, $57 million worth of shorts were liquidated in just the first 10 minutes of Musk’s endorsement.

Not only did Musk’s tweet help pump Bitcoin but potentially saved it from an extended bear market due to options expiring. Billions of dollars worth of Bitcoin futures options expired today, an event which could have otherwise pushed Bitcoin below $30,000 and into an even deeper rut.

Overbought Territory

While the move is undoubtedly good for the crypto market, it does mean Bitcoin has moved into overbought territory, signaling the potential for a trend reversal to the downside. However, as is common in the cryptocurrency market, the current revolutionary sentiment could continue to drive the price to the moon.