Elon Musk has diversified his cryptocurrency. Or at least, his crypto-related tweets.
A month and a half after calling bitcoin “brilliant,” the Tesla and SpaceX founder lauded one of the crypto market’s longest-running, and famously whimsical, alternatives.
“Dogecoin might be my fav cryptocurrency. It’s pretty cool,” Musk tweeted Tuesday.
His praise for the meme-inspired asset came in response to an April Fool’s Day poll posted the day before by the official Dogecoin account asking who should be the cryptocurrency’s next CEO (an absurd notion on its face, since crypto projects are supposed to be decentralized). Musk won with 54 percent of the vote.
So at 18:26 UTC Tuesday, the official Dogecoin account posted, “Looks like you’re the CEO now @elonmusk, DM us where to email the access codes :-D”
Musk then returned the favor with several tweets mentioning the cryptocurrency including one declaring that “Dogecoin rulz” – with a Doge meme attached.
‘$4.20 billion’
Then Jackson Palmer, the creator of Dogecoin – currently the 25th most valuable cryptocurrency by market capitalization, according to CoinMarketCap – parodied Musk with this tweet:
“Am considering selling http://Dogecoin.com for $4.20B. Funding (not yet) secured.”
That was a reference to an infamous older post from the Tesla CEO that ultimately led to a Securities and Exchange Commission action.
For those who don’t get it: Last summer, Musk tweeted that he had secured funding to sell his electric car company at $420 per share. The statement proved to be untrue, ultimately costing Musk personally his chairmanship of the company and $20 million.
Skeptics who followed Musk’s tendency to troll the internet took note of the price: “420,” a number that’s familiar code to pot users. Hence Palmer’s asking price of “$4.2 billion.”
Palmer, it should be noted, is not involved with this or any cryptocurrency (though he did confirm to CoinDesk that he still owns the website).
But Musk, who also founded the Boring Company, dreamed up the Hyperloop and is a member of the PayPal mafia, seemed proud of his new affiliation.
On Tuesday he changed his Twitter bio to “CEO of Dogecoin” (and later updated it again to say he was the “former CEO.”) The most recent tweet from the dubiously appointed executive as of this writing warns investors:
“Dogecoin value may vary.”
Shiba inu photo via Shutterstock