Tesla Accepts Dogecoin For Some Merchandise, Elon Musk Says; DOGE Surges

Elon Musk announced in the early morning hours on Tuesday that Tesla (TSLA) would begin accepting Dogecoin for some merchandise, saying Tesla will “see how it goes.”

With the announcement from Musk, Dogecoin’s price surged as much as 30% and was up 24.55% to $0.2012, according to CoinMarketCap.

Dogecoin’s price was down prior to Musk’s tweet.

Tesla said in March it would begin accepting Bitcoin for payment on its EVs after it purchased $1.5 billion of the cryptocurrency. But by May, Musk rolled back his plans and said that he would discontinue allowing Bitcoin for payment at Tesla, citing its inefficient use of energy for mining the coin.

However, Musk maintained that Tesla would not sell the Bitcoin, posting a tweet in reference to strongly holding on to the currency.

Musk, who has been a longtime supporter of Dogecoin, has been known to seemingly spike the price of the cryptocurrency in the past with one of his tweets. He previously called Dogecoin, “the future currency of earth.”

In May, he had asked his legion of 66 million Twitter followers whether Tesla should start accepting Dogecoin. The response from his fans was a resounding “yes.”

On Monday, Musk was named Time’s 2021 Person of the Year.

As of Tuesday at 9:35 a.m. ET, shares of Tesla were trading at $933.29, down $33.12, or 3.43%.