Elon Musk’s Tesla has officially started accepting Dogecoin (DOGE) as a payment method for products. This new development follows a series of teasers from Musk about the potential of such integration, culminating in a 20% increase in DOGE’s price in the last 24 hours. The cryptocurrency is currently trading at $0.16.
According to the FAQ section on Tesla’s official website, customers can now use Dogecoin to purchase select Tesla products. This payment option is visible next to eligible products on the “order” page of the Tesla store, displaying the Dogecoin symbol. The FAQ emphasizes that payments must be made from a single Dogecoin wallet and cannot be combined from multiple sources. Furthermore, once a purchase has been made, it cannot be canceled or returned.
The announcement sparked a significant reaction from the cryptocurrency community, with DOGE prices seeing a notable increase. This positive market response reflects the influence of Musk’s endorsement of Dogecoin, which he has frequently championed in public statements and on social media.
Dogecoin might be my favorite cryptocurrency. It’s very beautiful.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 2, 2019
In March, Elon Musk posted a playful tweet featuring three dogs wearing green hats for St. Patrick’s Day, including a Shiba Inu, the Dogecoin mascot. This tweet sent Dogecoin fans into a frenzy. Musk’s influence on meme coin markets has been a recurring theme, with tweets from him often leading to immediate price increases. This trend highlights Musk’s significant impact on financial markets through his social media activity.
This isn’t the first time Musk has changed the meme coin market, either intentionally or by accident. The Floki Inu coin is thought to have been created from a tweet in 2021 showing his new dog Shiba Inu, which he named Floki after a character from Vikings. On a related note, Baby DogeCoin was born on the same day, adding to Musk’s image as the mastermind behind the joke coins.
While people who like memecoins appreciated Musk’s happy tweet, the tech mogul has made great strides in another technological area. His new company, xAI, kept its word and made its AI robot, Grok, available to everyone, making it open source.
This move makes a big difference in the development of open and honest AI. By making Grok open source, xAI allowed anyone to see how vast it is
Tesla and SpaceX’s cryptocurrency holdings
Separately, Arkham, an on-chain intelligence tool, says blockchain detectives have found the Bitcoin wallets of Elon Musk’s companies, Tesla and SpaceX, which hold more than $1 billion. Based on their research, Tesla’s wallets contain over $771 million worth of Bitcoin, while SpaceX’s wallets contain approximately $555 million.
BREAKING: TESLA AND SPACEX ARE NOW ON ARKHAM
Arkham identified Tesla and SpaceX’s BTC holdings. We are the first to publicly identify these on-chain holdings.
We believe Tesla currently holds 11,51,000 BTC ($780 million) across 68 addresses and SpaceX holds 8,29,000 BTC ($560 million)… pic.twitter.com/vwoEJ0h0dS
—Arkham (@ArkhamIntel) March 7, 2024
In May 2022, when the price of Bitcoin dropped dramatically, both Tesla and SpaceX sold many of their Bitcoin shares. SpaceX lost money on these sales, but Tesla made enough to break even. However, SpaceX’s Bitcoin situation improved in November 2023, which coincided with the current Bitcoin bull run. According to Arkham data, the price of Bitcoin has nearly doubled since then, giving SpaceX a $132 million return on its BTC assets. On the other hand, Tesla earned $455 million in Bitcoin.
If these results are correct, they show that Bitcoin purchases by Tesla and SpaceX were larger than previously thought. Analysts thought Tesla owned around 9,720 BTC, but they didn’t know how much SpaceX had invested. Arkham research shows that Tesla has the most Bitcoin, 11,509 BTC.
