Dogecoin price surges as Elon Musk hints of Twitter integration

The price of dogecoin has surged by more than 50 per cent since the weekend amid speculation that the cryptocurrency will be integrated with Twitter.

Newly-appointed Twitter chief executive Elon Musk tweeted a picture of a Shiba Inu dog – used as the logo for the meme-inspired cryptocurrency – wearing a T-shirt with the Twitter logo, together with a winky face emoji.

When asked by one of his followers if he was “working on a doge solution for Twitter or working with devs for a doge payment system on Twitter”, Mr Musk replied the sideways-looking eyes emoji.

The multi-billionaire, who currently tops the Bloomberg Billionaires index of world’s richest people, has been a vocal advocate of dogecoin in recent years and already accepts it as a form of payment for other companies that he runs, including SpaceX and Tesla.

He also revealed last year that that it is one of only three cryptocurrencies that he has personally invested in, alongside bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH).

Dogecoin remains the only cryptocurrency that any of his companies accepts, having previously claimed that it is more suitable as a mainstream form of currency than bitcoin, as it does not have a fixed supply.

“Even though it was created as a silly joke, dogecoin is actually better suited for transactions,” Mr Musk told Time magazine in 2021. “It is slightly inflationary... but that’s actually good as it encourages people to spend rather than to hoard it as a store of value.”

Support for dogecoin payments on Twitter will likely be similar to how the process works with Tesla, where customers are able to pay using both fiat currency and cryptocurrency.

To make a payment using dogecoin, users will need a dogecoin wallet and a device that can read a QR code in order to recognise Twitter’s dogecoin wallet.

There has previously been speculation that dogecoin could be used to send micropayments among Twitter users, though the first application may be a proposed $8 subscription for a blue tick.

The cryptocurrency’s recent price resurgence bucks the trend of the overall crypto market, which is down 3 per cent over the last three days.

Other so-called ‘dog coins’ have also seen gains. Shiba Inu, Dogelon Mars, Floki and Baby Doge Coin all rising by between 30-150 per cent in recent days, according to CoinMarketCap’s price index, with crypto analyst Lark Davis describing it as “dog coin season”.