The Tesla CEO, who is an avid Twitter user, wrote, "Bought some Dogecoin for lil X, so he can be a toddler hodler" and also posted a short video clip of his son along with it.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 10, 2021
The billionaire entrepreneur who is currently the world's richest person, had earlier sent the digital currency's market value sky-high after he had tweeted a picture of a rocket with a trail tweet "Doge", and later endorsed the cryptocurrency saying, "Dogecoin is people's crypto. No highs, no lows, only Doge" in another tweet.
Musk's tweet about buying dogecoins for his son, came hours after he announced that Tesla had also invested in Bitcoin - worth over $1.5 billion. The announcement, buried deep in Tesla's 2020 annual report, drove a roughly 20 percent surge in the world's most widely held cryptocurrency to over $47,000. At that price, 0.8 bitcoins was enough to buy an entry-level Tesla Model 3.
Dogecoin, much like Bitcoin, is a cryptocurrency, which was initially started as a joke in the year 2013, by software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer, who decided to create a payment system that is instant, fun, and free from traditional banking fees. And now, Dogecoin is the 10th most valuable cryptocurrency by market value, just behind Bitcoin Cash and ahead of BNB. Dogecoin has the image of a Shiba Inu dog from the popular "Doge" meme as its logo.
According to a report by Investopedia, even though Dogecoin was started as something of a joke or a fun version of Bitcoin, it gained a following soon after it was created. It is believed that DOGE's casual presentation suited the mood of the crypto community. "Its crypt technology and unlimited supply was an argument for a faster, more adaptable, and consumer-friendly version of Bitcoin," said the report.
It added, "Dogecoin is an inflationary coin, while cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are deflationary because there's a ceiling on the number of coins that will be created. Every four years the amount of Bitcoin released into circulation via mining rewards is halved and its inflation rate is halved along with it until all coins are released."
