RIYADH: Dogecoin, a widely used cryptocurrency, jumped 7.9 percent on Tuesday after Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, said he will support the digital currency.
“I just know a lot of people who are not that wealthy who, you know, have encouraged me to buy and support Dogecoin,” Musk said in an interview with Bloomberg during the Qatar Economic Forum in Doha on Tuesday. “I’m responding to those people.”
Musk said that Tesla is accepting Dogecoin as payment for goods and confirmed that SpaceX will soon do the same.
That's not the first time Dogecoin reacted to anything Musk says about it. On Sunday, it jumped by around 9 percent within two hours after Musk tweeted that he would continue to support and buy it.
Despite the gain, Dogecoin is still down 63 percent this year, swayed by the cryptocurrency rout that saw Bitcoin drop below $20,000 last week.
