ElonCoin? Musk Says He Could Launch His Own Crypto But 'Only If Necessary'

Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk said he could launch his own cryptocurrency but would only do so if necessary.

What Happened: The entrepreneur was responding to a tweet that suggested that he offer a new coin named after himself to non-major Dogecoin (DOGE) holders to void their wallets.

Develop a new #ElonCoin, offer them to the existing non-major #dogecoin holders to void their wallet. You wouldn’t need to pay $ to make those majors dogecoin holders richer than they already are and allocate your time and support to make the ElonCoin the currency of the Earth.

— Mansour Shahrokh (@MansourShahrokh) February 15, 2021

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said the move was necessary and also had a name suggestion for a Musk-developed coin.

It is necessary. Maybe call it MarsCoin?

— CZ  Binance (@cz_binance) February 16, 2021

Why it Matters: Musk is asking major holders of DOGE to “sell most of their coins.” He is of the view that “too much concentration is the only real issue.”

See also: How to Buy Dogecoin (DOGE)

Musk had agreed previously that the concentration was “disturbing” when a Twitter user pointed out that one single wallet holds 28% of all existing DOGE.

Price Action: DOGE traded 10.06% higher at $0.058 at press time. Bitcoin (BTC) traded 4.64% higher at $48,848.54. Tesla shares closed 0.55% higher at $816.12 on Friday and gained nearly 0.2% in the after-hours session.

Benzinga’s Take: Musk has called upon DOGE Whales to void their wallets, and it seems if they do not comply with his request, the scenario for the Tesla executive to launch his own coin could arrive. Given Musk’s background and how he started his entrepreneurship journey by co-founding X.com, it would not an unusual move.

Musk has the necessary payments background to put his money where his mouth is. He possesses the social and financial clout to make an ElonCoin into reality, and given his interest in cryptocurrencies of late, that might just happen.

Photo courtesy: Forbes via Wikimedia