Dogecoin Fans Hope Elon Musk's 'SNL' Appearance Will See Crypto Hit $1

Fans of the Dogecoin cryptocurrency are eager to see Elon Musk's appearance on Saturday Night Live this weekend, amid speculation it could raise the token's price.

Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency token that was originally started as a joke in 2013, has soared in value this year with year-to-date returns of around 12,600 percent currently.

It is currently down -0.94 percent on the day, with a price of $0.60 and a market capitalization of $78.1 billion.

Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has voiced support of the token numerous times on Twitter, at one point claiming he would "put a literal Dogecoin on the literal moon."

Fans of Dogecoin have rallied around Musk because his support is seen as influential.

This Saturday, the entrepreneur is due to host the U.S. comedy sketch show Saturday Night Live, and he has suggested that Dogecoin will somehow feature in a skit. The show is due to air at 11:30 p.m. ET on Saturday on NBC.

He tweeted on April 28: "The Dogefather, SNL May 8." Barely any further details have been released, prompting speculation.

Actor and comedian David Spade asked in a tweet on Thursday night whether Musk's SNL performance "will be a 90-minute infomercial for Dogecoin." Musk replied with laughing emojis.

Meanwhile, observers have wondered what an SNL feature might do to Dogecoin's price. Fans on Twitter are hoping the token's price could rise to a dollar.

However, the price of Dogecoin, and that of cryptocurrencies more widely, is notoriously volatile and attempts to push its value up don't always work.

On April 20—dubbed "Dogeday" due to the meme connotations of 4/20—the coin's price actually fell flat, at one point dropping down 21 percent on the day, according to Coindesk.

In a brief interview with fans on the street, uploaded to YouTube by TMZ, Musk warned against getting too enthusiastic about the token. He said: "First of all, I think people should not invest their life savings in cryptocurrency, to be clear. I think that's unwise… don't take too much risk on crypto." Musk then shared the video on Twitter.

Menachem Brenner, professor of finance at the Stern School of Business at New York University, told Newsweek last month: "Though the supply of bitcoin is limited, given there are no barriers to entry, I don't see why the value will go up in the long run. Specifically regarding Dogecoin, since the supply will not be limited, this is even more true and in the long run it may decline to zero."

Earlier this week Dogecoin rose to an all-time high of $0.69. Its increase this year seems to have been driven in part by celebrity endorsements by the likes of Musk, investor Mark Cuban—who mentioned it on The Ellen Show—Snoop Dogg, and Gene Simmons.