Tesla boss and X owner Elon Musk is supposedly holding a Dogecoin bag to go along with his public affection for one of crypto’s biggest coins.
An audio clip featuring Elon Musk’s voice revealed that the richest man in the world owns “a bunch of Dogecoin”. Musk also said that his car company, Tesla, held a lot of Bitcoin (BTC), the leading digital asset worth more than Meta, Silver and Saudi Aramco.
Although crypto.news could not verify that the voice is indeed Musk’s, the recording suggests that he holds a significant position in the largest coin by market capitalization.
Dogecoin (DOGE) launched in 2015, has grown 431,691% in the nine years since its debut. The Shiba Inu dog-inspired token is deeply rooted in crypto lore as one of the founding meme coins.
Musk first publicly expressed his appreciation for Dogecoin between 2018 and 2021, as general interest in the crypto began to increase. The billionaire described the coin as technically interesting as a currency and funny as a meme. Tesla added DOGE as a merchandise payment option to its website in early 2022.
Tesla briefly purchased Bitcoin in 2021, but later sold some of its holdings. Musk has cited environmental concerns regarding Bitcoin mining and node operations. However, he indicated that Tesla may reconsider its support for Bitcoin if the energy issues are resolved.
Last month, Tesla quietly moved 769 million dollars from its Bitcoin to new wallets. Observers speculated that the move marked a shift in Musk’s thinking and that Tesla could resume its support of Bitcoin.
Meanwhile, DOGE remains the top coin in crypto, with a market cap of $55 billion at press time. The token peaked at around $90 billion in 2021 and is currently trading 50% below its previous all-time high.
Speculators believe DOGE could return to its ATH this cycle and could receive additional public support from Musk. In August, a judge dismissed a multibillion-dollar lawsuit against the Tesla CEO alleging he ran a DOGE pyramid scheme.
Musk said he was interested in re-adding DOGE on the Tesla platform less than 24 hours after the court verdict.