Elon Musk Says Tesla Will Try Out Doge Payment For Some Merchandise; Meme Currency Spikes In Reaction

After seeing listless trading in recent sessions, Doge DOGE/USD is seen spiking higher Tuesday, with the catalyst being an announcement from the meme currency's avid backer Elon Musk.  

What Happened:  Musk, who is into the habit of talking up Doge with his tweets and mentions, has done it once again. The Tesla, Inc. TSLA CEO said in a tweet that the company would make some merchandise buyable with Doge and see how it goes. Since then, the tweet has garnered 21,8000 retweets and 117,500 likes, and 5,554 quote tweets.

Tesla will make some merch buyable with Doge & see how it goes

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 14, 2021

Related Link:  How to Buy Dogecoin 

Musk's Twitter announcement comes a day after he suggested in a Time interview that he thinks Doge is a better option for transactions than Bitcoin BTC/USD. 

Why It's Important:  Doge, which had a stellar run in the first half of the year and hit an all-time high of $0.737567 in early May, buoyed by expectations regarding a boost from Musk's "Saturday Night Live"  appearance, has pulled back notably since then. 

At this point, its market cap fell below its meme counterpart Shiba Inu SHIB/USD before clawing back. 

On Tesla's part, the company shelved plans to accept Bitcoin as a payment option after announcing in this regard earlier this year. Tesla still holds Bitcoin on its balance sheet. 

If Tesla's pilot run, as suggested by Musk, turns out a success, it could eventually lead to the EV maker accepting Doge for vehicle purchase. It would give a real boost to the meme currency, themed after the Japanese breed dog Shiba Inu. 

At last check, Doge was surging up 25.75% to $0.208100. 

Related Link: Dogecoin's Climb To $1 By Year-End: A Possibility Or A Pipedream?

Photo by TreverThePuddleDuck via Pixaby