Tesla CEO Elon Musk has hinted his electric-car manufacturer could add Dogecoin (DOGE) as an official payment method for Tesla cars “at some point”.
On March 13, Musk was interacting with the public at the Berlin Gigafactory, a Tesla manufacturing plant, wherein an audience member asked if Tesla can be bought using DOGE in the near future. Musk responded positively to the request:
“At some point I think we should enable that.”
Musk's response sparked enthusiasm among investors as the market price of the token witnessed a sudden surge. Dogecoin reacted by jumping from $0.172 to $0.188 at the time of writing, marking a 9.3% as the video gains traction on X.
Elon Musk at Giga Berlin today.
— Sir Doge of the Coin ⚔️ (@dogeofficialceo) March 14, 2024
“When will I be able to buy a Tesla with dogecoin?”
“At some point I think we should enable that.” pic.twitter.com/Suk7bifuHC
Musk said that fan can still use DOGE to buy Tesla merchandise and showed support for the altcoin by reiterating "Dogecoin to the moon."
Musk first started endorsing DOGE after a few employees from the Tesla Gigafactory urged the CEO to support Dogecoin as an official mode of payment. A similar request was made to him at SpaceX by visitors demanding support for Dogecoin, which ultimately was accepted as he said:
Doge is people’s crypto, so I will support it.
According to Musk, Bitcoin (BTC) got support from a lot of rich people and he wanted to support a crypto that is preferred by the general public.
Related: Dogecoin hits 7-day high as ‘XPayments’ account gains 100K followers in a day
Tesla started accepting Dogecoin payments for its company merchandise from Jan. 14, 2022. At the time, the company clarified that it supported only Dogecoin payments and any other “non-Dogecoin digital assets sent to Tesla will not be returned to the purchaser.”
Musk’s “everything app” X (formerly Twitter) recently created an 'XPayments' account for its upcoming payments feature, fueling crypto community speculation about whether cryptocurrencies will be implemented.
There is anticipation that the X app will introduce in-app payment services by mid-2024. However, it’s unconfirmed whether the feature will support payments beyond traditional fiat currencies or if Musk will follow through with his fans' vision of mainstreaming Dogecoin.
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