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Elon Musk said on Wednesday that he bought Dogecoin, whose mascot is a cuddly Shiba Inu dog (R), for his 9-month-old son, X → A-XII (L).
Twitter; Getty Images
Elon Musk boosted the price of Dogecoin again on Wednesday, claiming he bought some of the cult cryptocurrency for his infant son, X Æ A-Xii.
“I bought some Dogecoin for little X so he can be a toddler teacher,” tweeted the billionaire Tesla CEO at 10:08 am, with a deliberately misspelled slang term for someone who owns cryptocurrency instead of selling it.
Dogecoin’s price started to rise a minute after Musk’s Twitter post, hitting 8 cents before discounting gains, according to CoinDesk data.
The coin – which started as a joke and was inspired by an internet meme – recently traded at about 7.5 cents, about 4 percent more than the day before.
Musk hasn’t revealed how much Dogecoin he bought for his 9-month-old son, whose mother is electronic musician Grimes. Musk also did not say whether he owns a Dogecoin himself.
Musk’s tweets have caused Dogecoin to rise several times in recent months, gaining more attention and making it one of the most valuable cryptocurrencies in the market.
SpaceX’s founder has said his Dogecoin posts are meant to be jokes. But he is a fan of Bitcoin, as evidenced by Tesla’s announcement on Monday that it has purchased $ 1.5 billion worth of the world’s largest cryptocurrency.