Tesla boss and X owner Elon Musk supposedly holds a Dogecoin bag to go with his public affection for one of crypto’s biggest meme coins.
An audio clip spotting Elon Musk’s voice revealed that the world’s richest man owns “a bunch of Dogecoin.” Musk also said his automobile maker, Tesla, held lots of Bitcoin (BTC), the leading digital asset worth more than Meta, Silver, and Saudi Aramco.
Although crypto.news was unable to verify that the voice is indeed Musk’s, the recording suggests he has a sizable position in the largest meme 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 entrenched in crypto lore as one of the founding meme coins.
Musk first publicly expressed his appreciation for Dogecoin between 2018 and 2021, as mainstream interest in crypto began to surge. The billionaire described the coin as interesting on a technical level as a currency and funny as a meme. Tesla added DOGE as a merchandise payment option on its website in early 2022.
Tesla briefly bought Bitcoin in 2021 but later sold some of its holdings. Musk cited environmental concerns regarding Bitcoin mining and node operations. However, he indicated that Tesla might reconsider its Bitcoin support if energy issues were resolved.
Last month, Tesla quietly moved $769 million of its Bitcoin to new wallets. Observers surmised the move marked a shift in Musk’s thinking and that Tesla may resume its Bitcoin support.
Meanwhile, DOGE remains the top meme coin in crypto, with a market capitalization of $55 billion at publishing time. The token peaked at around $90 billion in 2021 and currently trades 50% below its previous all-time high.
Speculators believe DOGE could return to its ATH this cycle and may receive further public backing from Musk. In August, a judge dismissed a multi-billion-dollar lawsuit against Tesla’s CEO alleging he ran a DOGE pyramid scheme.
Musk said he was interested in re-adding DOGE to Tesla’s platform less than 24 hours after the court’s verdict.