Dogecoin prices jumped early Friday in a much needed rally for the meme coin
Dogecoin holders got a January present Friday when Tesla (TSLA) – Get Tesla Inc Report CEO tweeted that the secondary cryptocurrency could be used to purchase merch from the electric vehicle company.
The price of Dogecoin was up nearly 11% to 19 cents following the tweet.
Only a few items were available to buy with the meme crypto at last check Friday with CNBC reporting a whistle shaped like Tesla’s Cybertruck costing 300 doge, or about $59. A commemorative belt buckle celebrating Tesla’s Texas Gigafactory was selling for 835 doge, or about $164.
Tesla has been laying the groundwork for this transition for weeks, with Musk teasing Dogecoin for Tesla merch previously on Twitter.
One of the limitation with purchasing with dogecoin is that there is a no-return policy with those items.
Dogecoin Boost vs the Crypto Crash
The boost for Dogecoin couldn’t come at a better time for the cryptosphere.
Bitcoin prices have plummeted over the past three months. Dogecoin meanwhile has been on a steady decline for the past six months, but the cryptocurrency is up nearly 30% over the past five days of trading.
Cryptocurrencies have struggled as the Federal Reserve has signaled that it will be tapering its economic stimulus over the next 12 months.
Dogecoin Leads the Meme Coin Pack
Dogecoin, which features the image of the Shiba Inu dog as its logo and namesake, racked up a market cap of $25.49 billion, at the time of printing, according to CoinMarketCap, making it the most popular.
The crypto is considered the first of the so-called “meme coins,” which are inspired by a meme or has some humorous characteristic.
It was created by software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer, who decided to create a payment system as a “joke”, making fun of the wild speculation in cryptocurrencies.
