Tesla to accept dogecoin as payment for merchandise, says Musk

The carmaker exec was not clear on exactly what the cryptocurrency could be used to buy

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Tesla chief Elon Musk said on Tuesday the electric carmaker will accept dogecoin as payment for merchandise on a test basis, sending the meme-based cryptocurrency up over 20 per cent. “Tesla will make some merch buyable with Doge & see how it goes,” Musk said in a tweet.

Musk’s tweets on the cryptocurrency, including the one where he called it the “people’s crypto,” have helped the meme coin soar 5,859 per cent over the past year, according to data from Coinbase website.

“Elon Musk has been an advocate for the crypto community for many years. His latest announcement will usher in a new era of commerce and trailblaze a path for altcoins to expand their use case,” said Chris Kline, co-founder of Bitcoin IRA.

Musk did not specify what merchandise, whose prices start from US$50 and go as high as US$1,900, could be bought with dogecoin.

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Tesla sells apparel, ‘Giga Texas’ belt buckles, and mini models of its vehicles, as well as quirky limited-edition items such as the ‘Cyberwhistle’, which is modeled after its much-awaited Cybertruck. It recently launched a quad bike ‘Cyberquad’ for kids , also modeled after the truck.

Musk, a cryptocurrency supporter, has often endorsed dogecoin and said it is better for transactions, most recently in an interview to Time magazine, which named him “Person of the Year” for 2021 on Monday.

He had asked users in May if they wanted Tesla to accept dogecoin in a Twitter poll. He had called dogecoin a ‘hustle’ during his guest-host spot on the Saturday Night Live comedy sketch TV show in May.

Tesla stopped accepting bitcoin for car purchases in May, less than two months after the company began to accept the world’s biggest digital currency for payment.