Dogecoin tumbles after Elon Musk calls it a ‘hustle’ on ‘SNL’ show
Dogecoin lost more than a third of its price on Sunday, after Tesla chief and cryptocurrency supporter Elon Musk called it a ‘hustle’ during his guest-host spot on the “Saturday Night Live” comedy sketch TV show.
Dogecoin was quoted as low as $0.416 on crypto exchange
Binance, down 36% from levels around $0.65 before the show.
The billionaire Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) chief executive hosted
the SNL 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, after his tweets this year turned the once-obscure digital
currency, which began as a social media joke, 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 rare business mogul to have been asked to host
the venerable comedy TV show. His appearance on the iconic late night show puts
Musk back in the spotlight just as Tesla's stock is losing steam following last
year's monster rally. read more
The unconventional CEO has posted numerous comments about
cryptocurrencies on Twitter and criticized regular cash for having negative
real interest rates.
"Only a fool wouldn't look elsewhere," he said in
February.
His cryptic tweets "Doge" and "Dogecoin is
the people's crypto" that month kicked off a rally in dogecoin - created
as a parody on the more mainstream bitcoin and ethereum . read more
On Thursday, Musk tweeted: "Cryptocurrency is
promising, but please invest with caution!" with a video clip attached in
which he said, "it should be considered speculation at this point."
But he also said, in the video, that cryptocurrency has a
"good chance" of becoming what he called "the future currency of
the Earth."
Some financial commentators questioned whether it was
responsible for Musk to comment on the cryptocurrency, given he has the power
to move its price.
"I think he's having a lot of fun ... He can say
anything he wants about dogecoin or cryptos fully aware that just him saying
something moves the price," said James Angel, associate professor at
Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, who specializes in
financial markets and cryptocurrency.
"Anyone who wants to play the Elon Musk game should be
prepared to lose all their money."
The flood of selling appeared to cause problems for popular
retail trading platform Robinhood, which tweeted early on Sunday that due to
high trading volume and volatility some customers had experienced
"intermittent issues" trading cryptocurrencies.
The company later said the issues had been resolved and that
it would contact customers affected by the downtime.
On crypto data tracker CoinGecko.com, dogecoin has jumped
more than 800% over the last month and is now the fourth-largest digital
currency, with a market capitalization of $73 billion. It hit a record high
Thursday above $0.73.
Tesla said in February it bought $1.5 billion worth of
bitcoin and would soon accept it as a form of payment for its electric cars, a
large stride toward mainstream acceptance that sent bitcoin soaring to a record
high of nearly $62,000. read more
Tesla shares closed 1.3% higher at $672.37 on Friday.
Some crypto experts said that Sunday's dogecoin selloff was
driven by speculation and that Musk had not hurt its long-term prospects.
"Long term fundamentals of doge are intact. This is a
buying opportunity," said Jehan Chu, managing partner at Hong Kong
blockchain venture capital firm Kenetic Capital.
"It’s a true social currency - that’s its value."
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