Though the price of Dogecoin (DOGE) surged over the weekend to surpass $0.06 again, this time another token based on a cuddly canine benefited from the hype around Elon Musk’s social media posts.
In a Saturday tweet, the Tesla CEO said he would be getting a Shiba Inu dog for his household. The dog — whose breed is native to Japan — was at the center of the popular meme from which Dogecoin took its name in 2013. The doge meme features a Shiba Inu looking into the camera with a seemingly confused expression as floating text represents its inner monologue.
Though Musk’s tweets have likely contributed to the price of DOGE reaching an all-time high of more than $0.08 earlier this year, the token price didn’t flinch at the billionaire’s acquisition of a new family pet. The Tesla CEO may have been joking or referring to Shiba Inu (SHIB), a different cryptocurrency project.
According to data from CoinGecko, the price of SHIB rose 300% in the hours following Musk’s tweet:
Musk’s social media activity may be partially responsible for moving the price of DOGE in 2021. Though the Tesla CEO also composed a series of Dogecoin-themed tweets on Saturday, the token price didn’t take off as it did in early February, having risen only 4.6% in the last 24 hours. However, the price of SHIB set a new all-time high of $0.00000008 before retreating to $0.00000005.
Musk has previously said he has “a big dog called Gatsby, a little dog called Marvin the Martian and a cat named Schrödinger.” It’s unclear whether the billionaire actually intends to add a Shiba Inu to his family, or if the tweet was another attempt to pump the price of certain tokens.
