Elon Musk Says Some Tesla Products Can Be Purchased With Dogecoin

Elon Musk says Tesla accepts Dogecoin as payment. (photo; instagram)

JAKARTA – Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk said on Tuesday, December 14 that the electric car maker will accept Dogecoin as payment for their merchandise. This statement instantly sent the meme-based cryptocurrency up more than 20%.

"Tesla will make some merchandise buyable with Doge & see how it goes," Musk said in a tweet.

Dogecoin, popular with retail investors, rose as high as $0.20 after the tweet. Musk's tweets about cryptocurrencies, including what he calls the "crypto of the people", have helped the meme coin jump in price 5.859% over the past year, according to data from the Coinbase website.

“Elon Musk has been an advocate for the crypto community for years. His latest announcement will usher in a new era of trading and pave the way for altcoins to expand their use cases,” said Chris Kline, co-founder of Bitcoin IRA.

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

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 14, 2021

Musk did not specify what merchandise, which ranges in price from $50 to $1,900, can be purchased with Dogecoin.

Tesla has also been selling clothing, 'Giga Texas' belts and mini models of its vehicles as well as quirky limited edition items such as the 'Cyberwhistle', modeled after the much-awaited Cybertruck. Recently they also launched a 'Cyberquad' quad bike for kids, also modeled after a truck.

Musk, a cryptocurrency proponent, is often in favor of Dogecoin and says it is better for transactions. Most recently in an interview with Time magazine, which awarded him the "Person of the Year" title for 2021 last Monday.

He had asked users in May if they wanted Tesla to accept Dogecoin in a Twitter poll. He referred to dogecoin as the 'crowd' when he was a guest host on the sketch comedy TV show "Saturday Night Live" in May.

Musk, who has more than 66 million followers on Twitter, has been heavily involved in the retail trade frenzy this year. He tweets about cryptocurrencies and helps make their prices soar.

But the EV maker stopped accepting bitcoin for car purchases, less than two months after the company started accepting the world's largest digital currency for payments.

"It's more or less the noise at Tesla," said Tom Martin, senior portfolio manager at Globalt Investment. "I see it as frisky or just making fun of it."