Dogecoin soars to new record as Musk fires off new tweet

Dogecoin rose to all-time high Sunday, as Elon Musk tweets “Who let the Doge out” amid the rally.

Elon Musk also posted tongue-in-cheek tweets about Dogecoin -- a Shiba Inu-themed unit that began as a joke -- stirring buying that drove its market capitalisation past $6 billion. (Twitter/Elon Musk)

The Shiba Inu-themed digital coin surpassed 8 cents for the first time, just a week after crashing to 2.5 cents and sparking an outcry on Reddit. It rose 53% in the last 24 hours to 8.2 cents as of 5:45 p.m. in New York on Sunday, according to CoinMarketCap data, breezing through its recent record of 7.8 cents posted in late January.

It now has a market value of $10 billion, making it the 8th-biggest cryptocurrency.

🎶 Who let the Doge out 🎶

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 7, 2021

The price recovered over the past week after Tesla Inc. co-founder Elon Musk returned from his self-imposed Twitter break to send a series of tweets promoting Dogecoin.

The people have spoken … https://t.co/x41oVMzTGo

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 8, 2021

Started as a joke in 2013, Dogecoin has been riding a wave of newfound popularity on social media, powered by the speculative frenzy of retail investors.

Bitcoin has also rallied this week, topping a record of $40,000, before paring gains.

By Yuegi Yang