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Dogecoin falls on Musk鈥檚 鈥榟ustle鈥 remark

The value of dogecoin dropped sharply early yesterday, after Tesla chief and cryptocurrency supporter Elon Musk called it a 鈥榟ustle鈥 during his guest-host spot on the 鈥淪aturday Night Live鈥 comedy sketch TV show.

Dogecoin was quoted as low as US$0.47 on crypto exchange Binance, down 28 percent from levels around US$0.65 before the show.

Cryptocurrency enthusiasts had for days been eager to see what he would say, after his tweets this year turned the once-obscure digital currency into a speculator鈥檚 dream.

Asked 鈥榳hat is dogecoin,鈥 Musk replied, 鈥淚t鈥檚 the future of currency. It鈥檚 an unstoppable financial vehicle that鈥檚 going to take over the world.鈥

When a show cast member Michael Che countered, 鈥淪o, it鈥檚 a hustle?鈥 Musk replied, 鈥淵eah, it鈥檚 a hustle.鈥 And laughed.

Musk is the rare business mogul to have been asked to host the venerable comedy TV show. The timing puts Musk back in the spotlight just as Tesla鈥檚 stock is losing steam following last year鈥檚 monster rally. The unconventional CEO has posted numerous comments about cryptocurrencies on Twitter and criticized regular old cash for having negative real interest rates.

鈥淥nly a fool wouldn鈥檛 look elsewhere,鈥 he said in February.

His cryptic tweets 鈥淒oge鈥 and 鈥淒ogecoin is the people鈥檚 crypto鈥 that kicked off a rally in dogecoin 鈥 created as a parody on the more mainstream bitcoin and ethereum.

On Thursday, Musk tweeted: 鈥淐ryptocurrency is promising, but please invest with caution!鈥 with a video clip attached in which he said, 鈥渋t should be considered speculation at this point. And so, you know, don鈥檛 don鈥檛 go too far in the crypto speculation ...鈥

But he also said, in the video, that cryptocurrency has a 鈥済ood chance鈥 of becoming what he called 鈥渢he future currency of the Earth.鈥

On crypto data tracker CoinGecko.com, dogecoin has jumped more than 800 percent over the last month and is now the fourth-largest digital currency, with a market capitalization of US$73 billion. It hit a record high on Thursday above US$0.73. It has overtaken more widely used cryptocurrencies such as litecoin and tether.


 

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