Elon Musk’s influence in the crypto industry has continued to grow, with the billionaire playing on this severally. In what is becoming more of a show of power, the Tesla chief executive caused an accidental jump in the price of a lesser-known asset this week.
DOGE and “MarsCoin” on Musk’s Mind
Beyond his love for autonomous vehicles, Musk is also known to be a space enthusiast. His company SpaceX is working with the U.S. government on several space exploration initiatives, and it has also been launching satellites into orbit for years now.
While the billionaire has been vocal in his support for cryptocurrencies- particularly, Bitcoin and DOGE, – he caused a massive jump in the price of MarsCoin, a relatively obscure digital asset. Musk had tweeted to criticize DOGE on Monday, explaining that the asset had become too centralized, with many investors looking to profit off it.
After claiming that he’d pay actual cash to see major DOGE shareholders void their wallets, a Twitter user had suggested that Musk could create an “Elon Coin” and offer it as an incentive to these DOGE whales instead. This way, the billionaire won’t have to append so much money to get what he wants.
Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, the chief executive at top exchange Binance, also weighed in on the conversation, explaining that Musk could call his proposed digital asset “MarsCoin.” Responding, Musk confirmed that there would “definitely be a MarsCoin.”
There will definitely be a MarsCoin!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 16, 2021
Moves Following Musk’s Tweet
The tweet immediately caught the attention of investors, who immediately flocked to purchase Marscoin – a digital asset that bases its mission on the possibility of humans traveling to the red planet. Data from CoinMarketCap shows that the asset has seen a significant jump of late, moving from $0.081 yesterday to $1.34 earlier today. The rally has since cooled down, but such is the type of influence that Musk now holds.
Marscoin’s market cap has also surged,m hitting $21.8 million – up almost 700 percent in the past day – while trading volumes jumped by 8,000 percent to $60,185 in the same period.
While Marscoin isn’t affiliated with Musk in any way, the asset is hoping to become humanity’s asset of choice when the Mars takeover does happen. The asset’s website touts it as the most viable blockchain platform for trading, voting, and capital allocation once the red planet has been colonized.
As for DOGE, the asset and its investors now understand that Musk’s sentiment can just as well be effective if they work in the negative. Several hours after the billionaire’s tweet, the dog-themed cryptocurrency saw a 23 percent plunge in its price, moving from $0.063 to $0.048. However, considering that the entire market slid in that same period, Musk’s role in this DOGE slump is less clear.
Some analysts believe that the market slump is due to Bitcoin reaching all-time highs, as the leading cryptocurrency had taken volumes out of several altcoins. Whatever it is, the market is coming to learn that Elon Musk isn’t to be messed with.
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