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Dogecoin Value Falls Sharply During Elon Musk’s SNL Performance, Social Media Exploded with Memes

A lot of news has been coming up about cryptocurrency nowadays. A cryptocurrency is a digital or virtual currency that is secured by cryptography. This makes it nearly impossible to counterfeit or double-spend. Many cryptocurrencies are decentralized networks based on blockchain technology. A disparate network of computers enforces this distributed ledger. There is no specific central authority that issues cryptocurrencies. This makes it theoretically immune to government interference or manipulation.

Recently, there have been many cryptocurrencies on the rise. Bitcoin and Ethereum are two of the popular cryptocurrencies, among many others. Some cryptocurrencies, however, are more of a recurring joke. Dogecoin is one of them, and in the past month or so, its value has soared very high. However, post Elon Musk’s performance on Saturday Night Live, the crypto’s value dipped by around 23%. Many people expected that Musk’s appearance on the American late-night TV show would boost Dogecoin’s value, considering that the Tesla and SpaceX CEO has been one of its biggest advocates.

What is Dogecoin?

Dogecoin is a cryptocurrency that was started in 2013 as an internet parody. It was a fun alternative to Bitcoin at the time, and was promoted more like a “meme”. Last November, its value was $0.0028. Today, even after the 23% fall in the last 24 hours, its value is $0.5375, which is quite a meteoric rise. It hit its peak in the last 2 days, going as high as $0.6848.

Dogecoin

Dogecoin takes its name and logo from a Shiba Inu meme that was viral several years ago. While it was an alternative to Bitcoin, there are some differences between the two. Bitcoin has an upper limit – there can be a maximum of 21 million Bitcoins. Experts predict that we will reach that mark by 2040. Dogecoin, on the other hand, has no upper limit. There are already more than 100 billion Dogecoins in existence.

What is with the Sudden Rise for Cryptocurrencies?

Dogecoin isn’t the only cryptocurrency that is on a rise. Recently, Coinbase Global, an American company that operates a cryptocurrency exchange platform, went public. It is one of the most popular virtual currency exchange in the US. Its market cap briefly hit $100 billion after going public. The values of Bitcoin and Etherem also touched $64,000 and $2,500, respectively. Dogecoin’s rise is part of this frenzy.

However, that’s not the only thing acting in Dogecoin’s favor. Recently, Elon Musk came out in support of Dogecoin. He has tweeted his support for Dogecoin many times, such as this:

Now, we know that an Elon Musk tweet on April 1st raises a lot of eyebrows, but it worked for Dogecoin. The meteoric rise saw Dogecoin reach a market valuation of $92 billion two days ago. This is a 26,000% increase in the last six months.

Why was Dogecoin Expected to Rise Yesterday, and Why Did it Fall?

Elon Musk hosted an episode of the famous late-night television Saturday Night Live yesterday. Musk drove the value of Dogecoin to an all-time high on Friday ahead of the show. He also tweeted an image of himself with a Shiba Inu puppy, the dog that is the face of Dogecoin. Over Friday and Saturday, the value of Dogecoin rose to 73 cents, leaving many to wonder if the value of the ‘meme crypto’ would reach a US dollar. Following his appearance on SNL, however, the value of Dogecoin dropped sharply.

The value dropped to as low as 51.5 cents during Musk’s appearance on the show. The fall came after Musk, who often plays with the value of Dogecoin with his tweets, joked about the crypto and called it “a hustle”. Answering questions in the character of a financial expert on the ‘Weekend Update’ segment of SNL, Musk was asked if Dogecoin was a hustle. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO responded, “yes, it’s a hustle”.

Elon Musk SNL Show
Credit – Saturday Night Live

Social Media goes into Meme Frenzy

The social media world exploded following Dogecoin’s dip. A ‘meme crypto’ is bound to get trolled through memes after all, isn’t it? There were a lot of reactions on Twitter regarding this fall in the value of the trending cryptocurrency.

Of course, there were some words of wisdom and advice too:

Our Opinion

Elon Musk sure has a lot of power in his tweets. He literally took a meme and made it one of the top five cryptocurrencies in the United States. Of course, many others have also come out in support of this crypto, but one cannot easily downplay Musk’s contribution. In today’s world, where the market fluctuates at the most random things, these are the kind of things that make a big deal out of something silly.

Musk’s tweets, or in general his social media presence, have known to have influenced a lot of fluctuations in the market recently. This includes the incident earlier this year when he tweeted in favor of Gamestop and sent short-sellers in the market scrambling to cover for their losses. Following the WhatsApp privacy policy update controversy, Musk tweeted that he uses Signal, another similar messaging app. After that, Signal Inc., a completely unrelated medical device company, saw a sharp rise of 5,100%. That is a lot of power to have in a single person’s social media presence, and that is precisely what has happened with Dogecoin.

Mihir Tasgaonkar
Mihir Tasgaonkar
A mechanical engineer who loves reading and writing about new technologies in the automobile industry.

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