Twitter has changed its logo from its signature blue bird to an image of the meme-famous ‘Doge’ shiba inu dog. The move resulted in a 30% increase in the value of Dogecoin, the cryptocurrency associated with the Doge meme. Dogecoin was founded as a lighthearted joke for crypto fans in late 2013 by software programmers Billy Marcus and Jackson Palmer, and it got its name from a popular meme that used the intentionally misspelt term “doge” to characterise a Shiba Inu dog. Dogecoin reached cult status on Reddit’s WallStreetBets message board in early 2021, where devotees promised to boost its value “to the moon.”
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, was largely responsible for the meteoric rise of Dogecoin after naming it his favourite cryptocurrency. Dogecoin’s value reached a high of $0.68 in May 2021, but has since plummeted and bottomed out around $0.11 in March 2022, although it remains among the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market cap. Dogecoin uses blockchain technology, which employs a distributed, secure digital ledger that saves and adds all transactions conducted on its network. The Dogecoin network also uses cryptography to safeguard all transactions on its blockchain network.
Musk and Tesla have been accused of running a pyramid scheme to support Dogecoin in a $258 billion racketeering case. Plaintiff Keith Johnson accused Musk, Tesla, and SpaceX of racketeering in promoting Dogecoin and driving up its price, only to see it plummet. The newest Twitter logo change occurred just days after Musk asked a US judge to dismiss the lawsuit, with Musk and Tesla’s lawyers dubbing the lawsuit’s assertions a “fanciful piece of fiction” based on Musk’s “innocuous and frequently foolish tweets” about Dogecoin.
