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Dogecoin online currency: sell-out after a tweet
Photo: Yuriko Nakao / imago images / AFLO
More than 46 million users follow Elon Musk on Twitter.
If the Tesla boss comments on stocks or online currencies there, it is not without consequences: After Musk criticized the online currency Dogecoin on Monday night, it caused a price slump.
"When big Dogecoin holders sell most of their coins, I fully support it," Musk wrote.
The biggest problem is that Dogecoin is concentrated in the hands of a few investors.
When asked by a Twitter user whether this would increase or weaken the value of the cryptocurrency, Musk replied that the price would initially fall before a long-term high.
A self-fulfilling prophecy as Musk started a sell-off.
In the past 24 hours, Dogecoin has fallen by around 15 percent.
Musk keeps moving the markets with his statements.
His tweets about Tesla shares got him into trouble with the SEC.
Since then, the manager has devoted his posts to other investments: Musk heated up the rally for shares in the video game chain GameStop, in which hobby speculators had invested with hedge funds.
And when Musk added the word "#Bitcoin" to his Twitter profile at the end of January, it drove the Bitcoin price up.
Maybe not altruistic.
Because last week it became known that Tesla had bought Bitcoins for 1.5 billion dollars - which made the Bitcoin price rise even further.
Musk had also previously expressed himself benevolently on Twitter about the Dogecoin.
The Dogecoin was originally a fun project: The crypto currency was launched as a parody of Bitcoin and is named after an Internet meme.
For years, Dogecoins were traded at ridiculous prices and, at best, used as virtual tips on social media.
But fueled by Musk's tweets, the Dogecoin climbed - for its standards - unimagined heights.
Since the beginning of the year, the price has increased by more than 900 percent, at peak times a Dogecoin cost around eight American cents.
Together, all Dogecoins are currently valued at around seven billion dollars.
This roughly corresponds to the market value of corporations like Commerzbank or Lufthansa.
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