Dogecoin soars after Elon Musk’s Twitter bird switch

Dogecoin has been around for about 10 years and has gained 40% YTD

The price of Dogecoin remained higher on Tuesday after a 30% plus spike following a switcheroo by Elon Musk.

Twitter users on Monday noticed the social media platform’s well-known bird logo had been exchanged for a different animal a shiba inu. 

In the spot on Twitter’s website where visitors usually find the blue bird, the image of the dog appeared to match the one used by the cryptocurrency Dogecoin. 

Prices rose as high as $0.77 before pulling back. Year-to-Date the crypto has advanced over 40%. 

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The decade old cryptocurrency, which Twitter CEO Elon Musk has spoken favorably about in the past, has been around since 2013. On its website, it describes itself as both an "accidental crypto movement that makes people smile" and an "open-sourced peer-to-peer" coin that uses blockchain. 

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elon musk dogecoin

Digital currency physical metal dogecoin coin on white computer keyboaed. (Getty Images / iStock / Getty Images)

Musk tweeted about the shiba inu appearing as Twitter’s logo on Monday afternoon, with one tweet featuring a related meme and the other showing a screenshot of him interacting with a Twitter user in March 2022. In that interaction, the Twitter user suggested the logo change, prompting Musk to reply by saying, "Haha that would sickkk."

"As promised," he wrote Monday in the tweet along with that screenshotted exchange.

Elon Musk China

FILE: Elon Musk departs the Phillip Burton Federal Building and United States Court House in San Francisco on Jan. 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Benjamin Fanjoy, File / AP Newsroom)

Musk and a couple of his companies were hit with a lawsuit in connection to Dogecoin in mid-2022 that made allegations of racketeering and a pyramid scheme and sought $258 billion in damages. His legal team filed a motion late last week requesting to have the suit dismissed, arguing it was a "fanciful work of fiction," according to Reuters. 

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The Twitter app

FILE PHOTO: Twitter app is seen on a smartphone in this illustration taken, July 13, 2021.  (REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration//File Photo / Reuters Photos)

Twitter has been owned by Musk for roughly five months. The closing of his $44 billion purchase of the social media company came after he and Twitter engaged in a lengthy legal battle.