Shiba-Inu themed cryptocurrency Dogecoin jumped over 30% Monday after Twitter’s logo, a blue bird, was swapped out for a cartoon image of a Shiba Inu on the social-media website.
The meme coin
DOGEUSD,
traded as high as $0.10 on Monday, up 11% year-to-date, while still down over 87% from an all-time high, according to CoinDesk data.
As a long-time backer of Dogecoin, Twitter’s chief executive Elon Musk has periodically tweeted about the meme token, often contributing to a brief rally in the crypto. Musk in 2021 called Dogecoin “a hustle” when appearing on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” show.
On Friday, Musk reportedly asked a judge to dismiss a $258 billion lawsuit accusing him of running a pyramid scheme to support Dogecoin, according to a report by Reuters. Some investors accused Musk of intentionally driving up Dogecoin’s price by more than 36,000% over two years, but then letting it fall.
Musk’s lawyers reportedly called the lawsuit “fanciful work of fiction” over Musk’s “innocuous and often silly tweets” about Dogecoin in a filing with the Manhattan federal court, according to Reuters.
Musk’s SpaceX started accepting Dogecoin for some merchandise in June after Tesla
TSLA,
made a similar move in January 2022.
Musk and representatives at Twitter couldn’t be reached for comment.
This post was originally published on Market Watch
