Tesla founder Elon Musk’s much touted appearance as the host of NBC’s Saturday Night Live could be worth literally millions to investors in the Dogecoin cryptocurrency.
At least that’s what those putting money into the digital coin are betting on.
“Musk will undoubtedly have a sketch on cryptocurrencies that will probably go viral for days and further motivate his army of followers to try to send Dogecoin to the moon,” wrote Ed Moya, a senior market analyst with online trading firm Oanda, CNN reported Friday.
A “tease” commercial for the show featuring Musk and musical guest Miley Cyrus sent the meme-themed crypto coin skyrocketing above $.70 Saturday morning, a record high since trading at less than a penny on Jan. 1.
According to the CNN report, Musk has some 53 million Twitter followers, and his earlier tweets kept many small investors bullish and raising the value of the shiba-inu “joke” coin.
Musk has even named himself the “Dogefather” in promoting his own investment in it.
Las Vegas is betting on Musk mentioning Dogecoin before other, more established cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, according to a MarketWatch report Friday.
The stakes for what Musk might say during the show, however, could have a real-world impact for thousands of smaller investors that have seen the coin rise some 12,000 percent in value since the first of the year.
“This Saturday is going to be a total make-or-break for Dogecoin,” 25-year-old investor Nikki Beesetti told MarketWatch in a phone interview. “If he can really get the messaging right, dogecoin can really take off…or it’s going to crash to wherever it’s going to crash to.”
While what happens when Musk speaks is questionable, other major players, like Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, have taken steps to legitimize Dogecoin by accepting it as a form of payment for various enterprises and able to be used at around 1,500 ATMs nationwide.
According to a story on Motley Fool’s the Ascent, Dogecoin is now the fourth largest cryptocurrency based on its market capitalization, which is currently bigger than Twitter or Ford.
Musk’s open endorsement of Dogecoin is not all hearts and rainbows.
According to the Ascent story, rumors began circulating in February that the Securities and Exchange Commission was investigating Musk and his pro-Dogecoin tweets.
The agency has not commented on the rumors, according to the Ascent story.
This all comes as regulators try and figure out how to handle investments in cryptocurrencies.
According to the story, some are worried that if regulators crackdown on Musk plugging Dogecoin, it could have a chilling and damaging effect for the entire cryptocurrency market.
This could also happen if thousands of smaller “retail” investors end up losing their shirts in a Dogecoin crash of some kind, making stricter regulations more likely, the report said.
Source: Newmax
