The popularity of Shiba Inus could grow significantly after the world’s second richest person, Elon Musk, sent out a tweet on March 14th, 2021 claiming that he is getting himself a Shiba Inu.
Elon Musk’s tweet comes in the wake of several other tweets he has sent out over the last couple of months promoting Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency that is themed after Shiba Inus. Getting himself a Shiba Inu could be part of Elon’s efforts to promote the adoption of the cryptocurrency.
What Is Dogecoin?
I’m getting a Shiba Inu #resistanceisfutile
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 14, 2021
At the time of writing this, Elon’s tweet had already attracted over 172,000 likes, 13,500 retweets, and close to 2,000 quote tweets. So what exactly is Dogecoin?
Dogecoin is an open-source, cryptocurrency that was created in 2013 by two software engineers, Jackson Palmer and Billy Markus. Initially, the two engineers created Dogecoin as a joke, riding off the then popular Doge meme. However, the digital currency unexpectedly gained popularity. At the time of writing this, Dogecoin had a market cap of $7.7 billion.
Despite having been created as a joke, Dogecoin is actually faster than cryptocurrency leader Bitcoin, with a block-time of one minute compared to Bitcoin’s 10 minutes. In addition, Dogecoin transactions are a lot cheaper than Bitcoin transactions. Unlike Bitcoin, however, Dogecoin has an infinite supply, which makes it susceptible to inflation.
Why Elon Musk Loves Dogecoin?
Elon Musk is no stranger to digital currencies. The billionaire founder made part of his wealth by creating PayPal, a digital payments company, together with cofounders Peter Thiel, Max Levchin and Luke Nosek.
Over the past couple of months, Elon Musk has shared several tweets encouraging people to buy Dogecoin, something that has led to a price increase for the digital currency every time he shares a tweet about it. Following his tweet about getting a Shiba Inu, the price of Dogecoin rose by 7.61%.
At one point, a Twitter follower asked the Tesla boss why he loves Dogecoin, and Elon’s response was that he loves dogs and memes, which are both represented in the digital currency. However, there are speculations that the Tesla founder is promoting the digital coin either because he is invested in it, or as his way of throwing taunts to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
In earlier tweets, the SpaceX boss said that he would help make Dogecoin the “currency of the internet” by buying out major Dogecoin holders. At the moment, over a quarter of all Dogecoin in circulation are owned by one holder.
Elon has also called for cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase to accept Dogecoin on their exchange. Already, other cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance have already added Dogecoin to their platforms. However, Elon, who is also known for his love of memes, has previously stated that most of his tweets about Dogecoin are meant as jokes and should not be taken seriously.
Elon Musk is not the only celebrity who is interested in Doge. Other famous people who have shown interest in the digital currency include rapper Snoop Dogg and Gene Simmons.
