Paris, April 4 (AFP\/APP):A meme-inspired cryptocurrency’s price jumped on Tuesday after Elon Musk changed the bluebird logo of Twitter to a dog associated with the digital token, despite the mogul being sued over his previous promotion of the coin.<\/p>\n
Musk bought Twitter in October last year for $44 billion and has since slashed the workforce, introduced paid-for accounts and reinstated banned users including former president Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
His decision to change the logo to a Shiba Inu dog, whether permanent or another short-lived joke, caused the price of dogecoin to surge by more than 25 percent, from below $0.08 to more than $0.10.<\/p>\n
The Twitter chief has 133 million followers and has long used the platform for self-promotion and humour, occasionally also promoting dogecoin, a highly volatile cryptocurrency initially created as a joke.<\/p>\n
Musk has said he is committed to crypto, with a substantial portion of his fortune held in bitcoin.<\/p>\n
Musk has also floated dogecoin as the basis for e-commerce payments, with observers wondering if the tycoon will use his purchase of Twitter to build an “everything app”, similar to China’s WeChat, that offers a wide range of services.<\/p>\n
The SpaceX owner’s embrace of dogecoin has landed him in legal trouble where he is being sued for $258 billion by an investor who claims he lost massive amounts of money because of Musk’s activities, though the billionaire has dismissed those claims.<\/p>\n
In a filing to a New York court on Friday, Musk’s legal team called the suit “a fanciful work of fiction” that “must be dismissed in its entirety with prejudice.”<\/p>\n
“There is nothing unlawful about tweeting words of support for, or funny pictures about, a legitimate cryptocurrency,” the filing added.<\/p>\n
The Shiba Inu dog became a popular meme in 2013 when posters on forums like Reddit and 4chan began using pictures of the Japanese dog breed alongside messages written in broken English.<\/p>\n
The cryptocurrency was launched as a joke later that year and remained largely without value for years — like thousands of other coins.<\/p>\n
However, in May 2021 its value briefly spiked to a then record $0.73 after Musk suggested his auto firm Tesla could begin to accept it as payment.<\/p>\n
The value quickly slumped and investors have accused Musk of manipulating the value of the token to make a quick profit, known as a “pump and dump”.<\/p>\n
The logo change prompted a slew of messages featuring the meme dog — not least from Musk, who tweeted out a conversation with a follower from last year where he had promised to buy Twitter and make the Shiba Inu its logo.
\nHowever, some users were more cynical.<\/p>\n
“Why do I get the feeling the Doge icon was added so when you search ‘Elon’ and ‘Doge’ the story of his racketeering lawsuit will be buried,” tweeted comedian Jesse McLaren.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Paris, April 4 (AFP\/APP):A meme-inspired cryptocurrency’s price jumped on Tuesday after Elon Musk changed the bluebird logo of Twitter to a dog associated with the digital token, despite the mogul being sued over his previous promotion of the coin. Musk bought Twitter in October last […]<\/p>\n
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