![](\"https:\/\/cryptoglobe.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com\/2021\/02\/DOGEUSDT-1280x620.png\")
<\/p>\nThe price of Dogecoin (DOGE), a cryptocurrency created as a meme using the Shiba Inu dog breed as its mascot, has surged over 60% after Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk started tweeting about the cryptocurrency. <\/p>\n
Through a series of tweets, Elon Musk started seemingly trying to pump the cryptocurrency\u2019s price, starting with a rocket near the moon and commenting \u201cDoge\u201d near it, and following up with a photoshopped scene from the movie \u2018The Lion King\u2019 showing Elon Musk picking up DOGE\u2019s mascot.<\/p>\n
The meme cryptocurrency was seeing its price drop from a new all-time high of about $0.088 that was hit thanks to a retail investor-fueled surge meant to help the price of DOGE hit $1 per coin, taking advantage of the momentum created through the WallStreetsBets\u2019 move to create a short squeeze on GameStop shares.<\/p>\n
Dogecoin\u2019s price then dropped to about $0.0315 before Musk started tweeting about it, and the cryptocurrency is now trading at $0.051.<\/p>\n
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Elon Musk\u2019s comments and apparent acknowledgment of the DOGE price pump came shortly after cryptocurrency derivatives trading platforms BitMEX launched Dogecoin perpetual swap contracts, allowing investors to speculate on the cryptocurrency\u2019s price through long or short positions.<\/p>\n
BitMEX allows traders to leverage their positions up to 20x and bases the contracts on the underlying bitcoin equivalent of the DOGE\/USDT trading pairs on other cryptocurrency trading platforms. Musk, as the pump is ongoing, tweeted out he is the \u201cdestroyer of shorts,\u201d seemingly pointing out a short squeeze was created after his tweets.<\/p>\n
Several users are speculating the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX has been hacked, as the DOGE tweets are seen as \u201cirresponsible\u201d for creating an artificial price surge that could see some investors hold the cryptocurrency at inflated prices after buying because of fear of missing out (FOMO).<\/p>\n
Moreover, the tweets are being published two days after Musk tweeted he was going to be \u201coff Twitter for a while.\u201d The tweets are also coming from the microblogging platform\u2019s web app, which Elon seemingly rarely \u2013 if ever \u2013 uses.<\/p>\n
Several prominent figures in the cryptocurrency space have weighed in on the DOGE price rise, cautioning investors there are risks involved. Binance\u2019s Changpeng Zhao pointed out that while the coin is \u201ccool\u201d and \u201cfun,\u201d its core development team has abandoned it. Moreover, one address holds 27% of all circulating DOGE, while the top 20 addresses hold over 50% of its supply.<\/p>\n
Featured image via Pixabay.<\/p>\n