Dogecoin jumps 5% after Elon Musk takes 9.2 stake in Twitter

After Elon Musk bought a 9.2 percent stake in Twitter, the price of Dogecoin has seen a big jump, bringing the popular meme coin to a nearly two-month high. Musk’s stake is worth around $2.8 billion (about Rs 21,085 crore). Based on a US SEC filing that took place in mid-March, the acquisition makes Elon Musk the largest individual shareholder of Twitter. Before the SEC filing became public, Musk asked his 80 million Twitter followers via a poll whether he thought Twitter supported free speech, and 70 percent answered “no.”

Twitter’s stock price saw a huge jump as soon as the news of Musk’s common stock purchase came out. In addition, the price of DOGE, one of Musk’s favorite cryptocurrencies in the crypto world, also appeared to be rising sharply. In the last 24 hours, DodgeCoin has gained about 5 percent, and is currently trading at $0.158 (about Rs.12) on the Indian exchange CoinSwitch. Meanwhile, on CoinMarketCap, Dogecoin has gained 4.9 percent in value over the past 24 hours.

As we reported on March 25, Musk wrote in a tweet that “freedom of expression is essential to a functioning democracy,” which was a poll. He asked “Do you believe that Twitter strictly adheres to this principle?”

This may be the first time that this increase in Dogecoin has happened without Musk taking any decision on Dogecoin. However, Musk has promoted DodgeCoin several times, saying that meme is best suited for cryptocurrency transactions and is a “people’s crypto”.

The Tesla CEO’s purchase of a stake in Twitter comes as the social media platform is exploring the possibility of decentralisation.