Elon Musk, who is being sued for his prior endorsement of the meme-inspired cryptocurrency Shiba Inu, changed Twitter’s bluebird logo to a dog connected with the token on Tuesday, causing the price of the digital token to soar.
Whether it was a long-lasting alteration or just another passing joke, his choice to use a Shibu Inu dog as the emblem led to a more than 20% increase in dogecoin’s price, from around $0.08 to more than $0.10.
The head of Twitter, who has 133 million followers, has long used the site for humour and self-promotion. He occasionally also advertises dogecoin, a risky cryptocurrency that was first made as a joke.
An investor has filed a $258 billion lawsuit against Musk, claiming that Musk’s actions caused him to lose a significant amount of money. Musk has refuted the investor’s allegations.
The cryptocurrency was introduced as a joke later that year and, like thousands of other currencies, remained mostly worthless for years.
However, after Musk stated that his automaker Tesla could start accepting it as payment, its value momentarily rose to a record $0.73 in May 2021.
Investors charged Musk with performing a “pump and dump,” or manipulating the token’s value in order to make a quick profit. The value of the token quickly fell.
Musk claims he pumps but does not dump and that he is committed to the cryptocurrency market.
The Shiba Inu became the logo after the company changed its logo, including a post from Elon Musk from last year in which he pledged to buy Twitter and use the Shiba Inu as its symbol.
Several users, however, were more pessimistic.
“Why do I get the feeling the Doge icon was added so when you search ‘Elon’ and ‘Doge’ the story of his racketeering lawsuit will be buried,” tweeted comedian Jesse McLaren.
