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Meme Gains Steam: Dogecoin Jumps 20% After Elon Musk Changes Twitter Logo

On Monday, Elon Musk’s Twitter changed the logo on its web and mobile browser to the Dogecoin dog’s face, which likely confused more than it entertained. The photo is the brand logo of the infamous cryptocurrency classified by the internet-at-large as a “memecoin.” The profits reaped by Dogecoin are no joke, though: the coin jumped 20 percent in just half an hour as the internet took notice.

Musk, who enjoys a good “troll” more than any other current public figure, has long been a Dogecoin advocate. The billionaire car and space mogul regularly tweets about the coin. He even mentioned it on Saturday Night Live; and every time he cracks a joke, the price starts jumping.

Musk has slowly begun incorporating the meme into his operations at Twitter since taking over as the social media platform’s CEO in October. In February, the cryptocurrency’s market cap increased $500 million from a single tweet by Musk.

Each Dogecoin is worth less than a dime, but it has risen to somewhat legendary status as one of the net’s original memecoins. In other words, the coin derives its value from its notoriety, rather than attachment to anything substantial. The joke has caught on, though, with the coin amassing a market cap over $13 billion.

In December 2021, Musk boasted that Tesla would begin accepting Dogecoin for some of its products, which may shed some light on his plans with Twitter. Some tech minds speculate that Musk’s fascination with memes and social media runs deeper than just inside jokes. He could potentially transform Twitter into a giant payment server platform — a “town hall” of sorts that acts as an online bank and community for its users.

The Twitter Dogecoin spectacle is not Musk’s first foray into blending business with crypto

In January, the Financial Times reported that the company was applying for regulatory licenses to operate across the U.S. as a payment processor. Currently, Twitter only handles a few million dollars in exchanges (primarily through tips), but that number could pop if Musk can convince users to see Twitter in a new light.

The Tesla CEO likely sees a future intrinsically tied to crypto in some way or another, and wants to be prepared for the eventual widespread acceptance of online currency. Under Musk’s guidance, Tesla even bought $1.5 billion of Bitcoin in February 2021. However, the company offloaded 75 percent of its holdings when the market turned negative in mid-2022.

When Twitter’s logo changed to the dog (or doge), users rushed to speculate if the stunt was just for fun…or something more. Some users even thought Musk may be trying to intentionally pump the memecoin in order to dump his own holdings at a premium.

But when some major media orgs like Fortune reached out to Twitter’s press account for comment, they received a different kind of ‘dump’ in return as an auto-reply: a poop emoji.