The worth of dogecoin dropped sharply in early US hours on Sunday, following Tesla chief and cryptocurrency supporter Elon Musk known as it a ‘hustle’ throughout his guest-host spot on the “Saturday Night Live” comedy sketch Television show.
Dogecoin was quoted as low as $.47 on crypto exchange Binance, down 28% from levels about $.65 just before the show.
The billionaire Tesla Inc chief executive hosted the show at 11:30 p.m. EDT on Saturday (0330 GMT on Sunday).
Cryptocurrency enthusiasts had for days been eager to see what he would say, following his tweets this year turned the after-obscure digital currency into a speculator’s dream.
Asked ‘what is dogecoin’, Musk replied, “It’s the future of currency. It’s an unstoppable financial vehicle that’s going to take over the world.”
When a show cast member Michael Che countered, “So, it’s a hustle?”, Musk replied, “Yeah, it’s a hustle.” And laughed.
Musk is the uncommon organization mogul to have been asked to host the venerable comedy Television show. The timing puts Musk back in the spotlight just as Tesla’s stock is losing steam following last year’s monster rally.
The unconventional CEO has posted several comments about cryptocurrencies on Twitter and criticized normal old money for getting damaging actual interest prices.
“Only a fool wouldn’t look elsewhere,” he stated in February.
His cryptic tweets “Doge” and “Dogecoin is the people’s crypto” that month kicked off a rally in dogecoin – developed as a parody on the more mainstream bitcoin and ethereum.
On Thursday, Musk tweeted: “Cryptocurrency is promising, but please invest with caution!” with a video clip attached in which he stated, “it should be considered speculation at this point. And so, you know, don’t don’t go too far in the crypto speculation …”
But he also stated, in the video, that cryptocurrency has a “good chance” of becoming what he known as “the future currency of the Earth.”
On crypto information tracker CoinGecko.com, dogecoin has jumped more than 800% more than the last month and is now the fourth-biggest digital currency, with a market place capitalization of $73 billion. It hit a record higher Thursday above $.73.
It has overtaken more extensively applied cryptocurrencies such as litecoin and tether.
Tesla stated in February it purchased $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin and would quickly accept it as a type of payment for its electric vehicles, a big stride toward mainstream acceptance that sent bitcoin soaring to a record higher of almost $62,000.
Tesla shares closed 1.3% larger at $672.37 on Friday.
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