Dogecoin's fanbase has reacted with excitement after self-styled "Dogefather" Elon Musk hinted that Tesla could be considering acceptance of payments made in the cryptocurrency.
Musk, who is the CEO of the electric car company, posted a poll on Twitter Tuesday morning asking: "Do you want Tesla to accept Doge?"
Do you want Tesla to accept Doge?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 11, 2021
The tweet has triggered a swell of enthusiasm on social media, as well as an instant rise in Dogecoin's value, with the cryptocurrency surging from $0.46 to $0.54 in the moments after Musk's poll went live, according to CoinMarketCap.
At the time of publication, more than 1.5 million people have voted on Musk's poll, with over 76% of the votes being cast in favor of Tesla accepting Dogecoin as a form of payment.
¡Hola! ¿Can you spot where Elon tweeted? pic.twitter.com/8zVDwYs4qr
— wadu 🌻 (@waduPUBG) May 11, 2021
— Aak Thu 2.0 (@Aak__Thu) May 11, 2021
I would LOVE to own a Tesla, some day im going to make that happen. Home ownership comes first, #doge is making this a reality soon. Thank you @elonmusk for all youve done for the #dogearmy. You may never realize just how much it has meant to some of us!
— Crypto Morpheus (@Charles93149380) May 7, 2021
Just think of the day when we OG #DOGE #dogearmy people will look back and say, "Remember when we were hoping for Dogecoin to go to $.50 & now we are looking for it to hit $5,000? Yeah that was fun." BTW we will be remembering this while driving our #Tesla right @elonmusk?
— Chris Rogers (@chrisrogers1973) May 4, 2021
Many of the tweets responding to the poll have expressed excitement about the idea. However, with lighthearted and often obscure memes common fare for large parts of the Dogecoin fanbase, it can be difficult to differentiate genuine enthusiasm from jokes.
An entity calling themselves "Doge coin Holder" has also set up a petition on Change.org.
"Elon Musk, by accepting doge coin (which you've already established as your favorite coin) for Tesla, will send dogecoin to the moon. We can get this coin to be the next Bitcoin," the petition reads.
Financial experts have previously warned Newsweek about the risks associated with cryptocurrency trading, including extremely volatile prices that can shoot up or collapse on little more than hype alone.
The cryptocurrency, which was originally created as a parody of Bitcoin, has seen its value skyrocket over recent weeks, with Musk's tweets and actions a major contributing factor behind its frequent fluctuations.
Having been worth $0.005 at the start of 2021, the value of a single Dogecoin currently stands at around $0.52, representing an increase of more than 10,000%.
It hit its all-time high of $0.73 on Saturday morning, following a multitude of plugs from Musk, and in anticipation of his appearance as the host of SNL later that same day.
However, its value plummeted after Musk described Dogecoin as a "hustle" on the show.
Almost instantly, however, he continued to hype the cryptocurrency up.
On Sunday, Musk announced plans for his rocket company SpaceX to launch a satellite called Doge-1 to the moon, a play on a slogan that Dogecoin supporters recently adopted.
He added that the mission will be funded by Dogecoin, and at the time of publication it remains unclear if the Doge-1 mission is real or if it is an elaborate hoax.
