Dogecoin (DOGE) crashed with the gigantic SpaceX Starship rocket after it (successfully) blasted off from a launch pad in Boca Chica, Texas, on Thursday, but exploded roughly four minutes into its flight.
The maiden test flight of the world’s most powerful and largest space launch system reached over 40 kilometers in altitude before it began spinning out of control and then exploding. The first stage separation clearly had some issues. No one knows what went wrong with the flight.
Dogecoin Price Crashes Along With Starship
BREAKING: SpaceX Starship rocket explodes in midair after launching as the boosters failed to separate from the rocket. https://t.co/8ENh7lSbSv pic.twitter.com/wTqBgYtYMo
— ABC News (@ABC) April 20, 2023
Dogecoin’s anticipated price “liftoff” in tandem with the Starship launch also ended in failure.
At the time of writing, Dogecoin (DOGE) was smothered in red, trading at $0.0841, down 8.16% in the last 24 hours. The memecoin has been down 7.24% in the last seven days, data from crypto market tracker CoinMarketCap shows.
Before this change, the value of the meme coin had been rising gradually. Even for such a volatile token, the 8.16% drop in DOGE value over the previous day is quite a bit to swallow.
The value of this meme token, which is frequently associated with Elon Musk, the self-proclaimed “Dogefather,” has fluctuated over the years due to a number of factors that have been linked to the billionaire.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, as reported by WION, Musk’s net worth has decreased by $12.6 billion in the previous 24 hours as a result of the Starship launch explosion.
Whales Shying Away From DOGE
Over the past two weeks, crypto whales’ DOGE wagering has been quite light. Since April 4, when they reached a record high, the number of whale transactions on the network has dropped dramatically. To gauge whale activity, blockchain data startup Santiment monitors all daily transactions of $100,000 or more.
According to latest data, the average daily volume of DOGE transactions has dropped from 1,062 on April 4 to roughly 273.
SpaceX said that their test vehicle “experienced multiple engine out, lost altitude, and began to tumble” during the test flight. Due to technical issues, the Starship’s original launch timetable failed, extending the launch date to Thursday.
Musk had previously linked Dogecoin to the SpaceX service he was planning to launch. Accordingly, it appears that the bad news for Dogecoin was caused by the failure to launch Starship on Thursday.
The official SpaceX Twitter account verified the rocket failure and reassured their followers that development on Starship would continue and that issues encountered during the separation of the first stage would be looked into.
It would be inaccurate to claim that the launch of the largest rocket in history was perceived as a disappointment, given the turn of events.
Congrats @SpaceX team on an exciting test launch of Starship!
Learned a lot for next test launch in a few months. pic.twitter.com/gswdFut1dK
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 20, 2023
Elon Musk himself tweeted his congratulations to the SpaceX team and said that the second Starship launch will occur in a few months.
Meanwhile, Musk is still defending himself against a $258 billion lawsuit brought against him by Dogecoin investors who claim he pumped the joke coin and then left it to crash.
-Featured image from TechnoPixel