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Host Elon Musk during the monologue on Saturday, May 8, 2021.<\/p>\n
Will Heath | NBCUniversal<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Remember dogecoin<\/a>?<\/p>\n The meme-inspired cryptocurrency skyrocketed 20% on Tuesday after Elon Musk<\/a> said Tesla<\/a> would accept dogecoin as payment for some of its merchandise.<\/p>\n “Tesla will make some merch buyable with Doge & see how it goes,” the electric auto maker’s CEO said in a tweet<\/a>.<\/p>\n Musk has frequently talked up dogecoin, calling it his favorite digital coin and mentioning it in an appearance on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live.”<\/p>\n Dogecoin was initially started as a joke by its creators Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer in 2013. It takes its branding from the Japanese shiba inu dog, which inspired the original “doge” meme.<\/p>\n Tweets from Musk and surging interest from a wave of amateur investors fueled a speculative frenzy in the cryptocurrency earlier this year, driving its price higher.<\/p>\n Dogecoin went from being worth just a fraction of a penny at the start of the year to notching a record-high price above 74 cents in May. It has since plummeted sharply \u2014 at just 20 cents a coin, the token is down more than 70% from its all-time high.<\/p>\n Some crypto investors say dogecoin is a phenomenon similar to “meme stocks” like GameStop<\/a> and AMC<\/a> and shouldn’t be taken seriously.<\/p>\n “I’m actually not convinced … that dogecoin is good for the crypto market,” Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of crypto firm Ripple, told CNBC<\/a> last month.<\/p>\n