Elon Musk has once again stirred up the cryptocurrency market by suggesting that dogecoin (DOGE) should be accepted as a payment method for Tesla vehicles.
Dogecoin saw a 15% increase in value Thursday morning (March 14), after Musk made his remarks, Yahoo! Finance reported Thursday.
Musk, a long-time supporter of dogecoin, first expressed his interest in the digital currency back in 2019, calling it his favorite cryptocurrency, according to the report.
The recent surge in dogecoin’s popularity can be traced back to Musk’s comments during a Q&A session at Tesla’s Berlin gigafactory, the report said. When asked about the potential of buying a Tesla with dogecoin, Musk responded, “At some point, I think we should enable that.”
His remark, along with the repetition of the popular dogecoin catchphrase, “dogecoin to the moon,” was met with cheers from the audience, per the report.
Musk’s support for dogecoin is not a random act, according to the report. He said that his endorsement of the cryptocurrency came after requests from people at Tesla and SpaceX. Viewing it as the “people’s crypto,” Musk decided to back dogecoin, a decision that has already seen Tesla merchandise being purchasable with DOGE.
Despite the potential environmental implications, as dogecoin, like bitcoin, uses a consensus model that produces high emissions, Musk’s comments have been well received by the market, the report said.
Tesla had previously accepted bitcoin as a form of payment for its vehicles but discontinued the program due to environmental concerns, particularly the high emissions from fossil fuels used in bitcoin mining and transactions, per the report.
Musk continued his support of dogecoin even during the free-falling cryptocurrency market of June 2022, telling Bloomberg at the time that he would continue to buy and hold the meme coin.
“A lot of people who are not that wealthy have encouraged me to buy and support dogecoin,” Musk said.
Dogecoin began as a joke, with its origins in the doge meme that became popular in 2013, and was meant for use as a quicker and “fun” bitcoin alternative.
However, the cryptocurrency gained an expanding community on the web and has often spiked in response to Musk’s comments about it.
For all PYMNTS crypto coverage, subscribe to the daily Crypto Newsletter.