Tesla chief Elon Musk is throwing his Twitter heft behind Dogecoin again, Tweeting on Tuesday that the electric vehicle maker will accept the cryptocurrency as payment for merchandise on a trial basis.
“Tesla will make some merch buyable with Doge & see how it goes,” Musk tweeted to his 66.3 million followers.
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Tesla will make some merch buyable with Doge & see how it goes
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 14, 2021
Dogecoin hit a high of more than $0.21 on the news, before giving back some of those gains, according to Coinmarketcap.com.
Musk’s boosterism has helped vault Dogecoin – a meme-inspired cryptocurrency that features a Shibu Inu dog – into the stratosphere this year. It is up more than 4,000 percent since January 1.
Though Musk did not specify exactly which Tesla merchandise could be bought with Dogecoin, its lifestyle product line ranges from mugs and water bottles selling for $30, to a Cyberquad for Kids retailing for $1,900.
Musk, who was named Time magazine’s Person of the Year on Monday, told the publication that even though Dogecoin started out as a joke, it is better suited than Bitcoin for transactions because it encourages people to spend rather than hoard it as a store of value.
Earlier this year, Musk announced that Tesla would accept Bitcoin for payment, but then suspended the practice citing Bitcoin’s carbon footprint.