The price of Dogecoin dropped more than 10% today and is currently trading at $0.07 following Elon Musk’s latest Twitter Poll asking if he should step down as the head of the social media platform.
The crypto market and broader tech industry have taken a pounding recently due to fears of a recession and the collapse of several prominent companies, including FTX.
Bitcoin, Ethereum, the S&P 500, NASDAQ, and Dow Jones Industrial Average were all down one to two percent today as well. All three major indexes fell for a fourth straight day to six-week lows, according to Yahoo! Finance.
The original meme coin had seen its price pump since the one-time richest man in the world bought Twitter in October. On October 27, when Musk officially purchased Twitter, the price of Dogecoin was $0.07. By November 1, dogecoin was trading at $0.14, with the coin falling and rising ever since, according to CoinGecko.
Even the year’s best price for Dogecoin is a far cry from where it was in May 2021, when it hit an all-time high of $0.73 leading up to Musk’s appearance on Saturday Night Live. But by June 2022, the coin had lost over 90% of its value.
Launched initially as a joke in 2013 by Jackson Palmer, Dogecoin found an unlikely champion in Musk, who has taken to social media to sing the praises of the digital currency over the last few years. Palmer—who left the project in 2015—and Musk have traded insults and barbs in the press and on social media.
In June 2022, leaked messages hinted that Musk had planned to build a payment system into Twitter, and many speculated that it would use dogecoin since it was Musk’s favorite cryptocurrency. Musk reportedly put those plans on hold after completing the Twitter purchase.
Despite Musk’s love of Dogecoin, his company Tesla has yet to invest in the meme coin and currently holds $218M in Bitcoin.
During the legal battle over Musk buying Twitter, several messages were revealed between Musk and others, including Jack Dorsey, then FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, and others on potential development and investment in Twitter.
Musk said that Bankman-Fried’s offer of a $3 billion investment set off his “BS detector.”
Many have questioned Musk’s leadership style when it comes to Twitter, including Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin who said Musk’s banning of accounts, including one tracking the location of Musk’s private jet, would put Twitter on a “path to authoritarianism.”
Musk has taken to posting polls on Twitter to gauge community views on various Twitter policies, including reinstating once-banned accounts and now whether he should stay in charge of the site. Musk said he would abide by the poll results—and potentially leave Dogecoin in the dog house.
Stay on top of crypto news, get daily updates in your inbox.
