Dogecoin Google searches peaked on Elon Musk’s Twitter purchase
Online searches for ‘Buy Dogecoin’ shot up by almost 400 per cent on the day Elon Musk – one of the altcoin’s biggest evangelists – bought social media platform Twitter.
Analysis of last week’s Google search data by CryptoWallet.com showed that online interest for buying Dogecoin skyrocketed to almost four times the average volume in one day due to Musk’s $44bn move.
Musk mischievously plugged Dogecoin on Twitter during the fallout from his on-off relationship with Bitcoin. Last year, he famously declared his pioneering car company Tesla would accept Bitcoin as payment, before withdrawing the option due to environmental concerns over the flagship cryptocurrency.
He then went on a Doge-infused charm offensive which saw the meme token’s price spike ahead of his guest appearance as host of Saturday Night Live.
Prior to broadcast, analysts expected the price of Dogecoin to reach $5 in anticipation of the South African entrepreneur mentioning it on the show.
And the 50-year-old didn’t disappoint. He even squeezed in a comedy sketch with his co-presenters jokingly attempting to explain what the meme coin was, ending the skit shouting “to the moon!”.
The moon, however, appeared some distance from the thoughts of many Dogecoin holders as investors clearly felt the joke coin had peaked with the TV appearance.
Musk’s questionable financial push triggered a selloff, and Dogecoin plummeted from $0.70 as the show began to a staggering $0.51 by the time the final credits were rolling.
The portents were already there for any keen-eyed market watcher as, hours before the programme aired, Doge’s lofty heights of $0.73 lost altitude and dropped to around $0.63 as large investors clearly wanted to hedge their bets.
The episode even led to Dogecoin co-creator Jackson Palmer giving “self-absorbed” Elon Musk both barrels in response to his social media meddling with cryptocurrencies.
Palmer, who devised Dogecoin as a joke with Billy Markus eight years ago, blasted the billionaire after he sent markets crashing with an announcement that Tesla would no longer accept Bitcoin as payment.
“Reminder: Elon Musk is and always will be a self-absorbed grifter,” he pointedly said, before adding “removing this in 1 min as that’s all I have to say and I enjoy the quiet life.”
“ps. SNL episode was cringe, bro.”
Today, Dogecoin sits around $0.13 a token. It hit $0.16 on the announcement of the Twitter acquisition, and had touched $0.18 earlier last month when news of Musk’s serious interest in a purchase began to circulate.
“Since the news of Musk buying Twitter broke, Dogecoin has jumped buy 17%, with the price expected to rise as the story develops,” said a spokesman for CryptoWallet.com.
“These findings offer a fascinating insight into the influence and power that Elon Musk has, not only on mainstream social media platforms, but also in the world of cryptocurrency.”
Google searches for ‘How to buy Dogecoin’ also increased 301% last week, with ‘What is Dogecoin?’ rising 237%.