Elon Musk seemingly caused the price of the cryptocurrency dogecoin to tumble over the weekend following comments he made on Saturday Night Live.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO spoke about dogecoin, which has risen in value by 14,000 per cent since January to become the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market value, while guest-hosting the long-running US live variety show on Saturday (May 8).
Musk, who has been a prominent supporter of dogecoin and previously referred to himself as “the Dogefather”, discussed the cryptocurrency during one of SNL‘s ‘Weekend Update’ segments where he was repeatedly asked “what is dogecoin?”
“It’s the future of currency,” he said at one point in reference to dogecoin during the sketch. “It’s an unstoppable financial vehicle that’s going to take over the world.”
Pressed by SNL castmember Michael Che to further explain dogecoin, Musk responded: “I keep telling you, it’s a cryptocurrency that you can trade for conventional money.”
Che replied: “Oh, so it’s a hustle?,” to which Musk, laughing, said: “Yeah, it’s a hustle”.
As The Guardian reports, after initially rising in anticipation prior to Musk’s appearance on the show, the price of dogecoin then began to fall by as much as a third as the market reacted to Musk’s SNL appearance.
The price of dogecoin had dropped by 35 per cent at one point yesterday (May 9) to reach $0.47 (£0.34) against the dollar (via Coindesk).
The price did recover last night, however, to reach $0.58 (£0.41), although that is still below the $0.68 it hit before the weekend following surging interest from investors.
Musk’s appearance on SNL also included a Super Mario-themed sketch that featured Grimes as Princess Peach.
The post Elon Musk’s ‘Saturday Night Live’ comments cause the price of dogecoin to tumble appeared first on NME.
