Dogecoin Leaps Hours After Elon Musk Hints at Tesla Accepting DOGE Payments in the Future

Popular meme asset Dogecoin (DOGE) is rising after Tesla CEO Elon Musk hints that the electric car company may accept DOGE payments in the future.

Speaking at Giga Berlin, a manufacturing plant for Tesla in Germany, the longtime Dogecoin proponent and billionaire was asked when Tesla would be accepting the dog-themed digital asset as payment for its vehicles.

The business magnate responded that it could be a possibility in the future, noting that consumers can already use DOGE to purchase Tesla merchandise.

“When can you buy a Tesla with Dogecoin? At some point, I think we should enable that. You can buy Tesla merch with DOGE, which is cool, so Dogecoin to the moon.”

Musk goes on to explain that he first became a fan of DOGE after he realized that normal people were enthusiastic about it.

“In fact, a lot of people maybe don’t know the reason that I actually ended up sort of endorsing Dogecoin was that I was walking around the factory at Tesla and some people, they were just working the line, not rich people or anything, and they said, ‘Can you support DOGE?’

And also, I was at SpaceX, walking the factory and some regular guys said ‘Hey, can you support DOGE?’ And I was like, ‘Hmm, you know what? DOGE is the people’s crypto, so I will support it because lots of rich people were supporting Bitcoin, but I was like, ‘Huh, if people in line want me to support DOGE, I will support DOGE. DOGE is for you.”

In the hours following Musk’s comments, DOGE leapt from a 24-hour low of $0.166 to a 24-hour high of $0.189, a nearly 14% jump. Dogecoin has leveled off since and is trading for $0.173 at time of writing, a 3.68% gain during the last 24 hours.