World’s first Dogecoin billionaire has stock hit $11BILLION after Elon Musk dubs self ‘Dogefather’ in crypto boom
THE world's first dogecoin billionaire watched their stock soar to $11BILLION as the "joke" cryptocurrency boomed after Elon Musk dubbed himself the "Dogefather".
Its value rocketed after the Tesla tycoon spoke out ahead of a much-hyped appearance on SNL suggesting he might talk about it on the hit show watched by millions.
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He simply tweeted: "The Dogefather. SNL May 8" sending values soaring.
Dogecoin's price shot up from $0.25 to $0.30 in less than 15 minutes after Musk posted a cryptic tweet about him starring on the hit show.
And that is great news for one investor who is said to own up to 30 cent of all of dogecoin in circulation now worth around $11bn.
At one point last week that stake was worth more than $14.6bn - in crypto talk the soaring stock is going 'to the moon'.
Some have even speculated - without proof - that the mystery shareholder could be Musk himself.
They point to one transaction for 20.06281971 DOGE - which some believe could refer to Musk’s birthday on 28th June 1971.
However, there is no actual evidence the Tesla boss - worth a reported £179bn - owns a significant amount of dogecoin.
And in January, Musk, 49, noted that his posts about the cryptocurrency are "just meant to be jokes".
At the start of 2021, the currency was worth about half a cent - even as bitcoin prices surged to nearly $30,000.
However, dogecoin has now pushed back towards the record highs it experienced earlier this month.
An 8,000 per cent price increase this year has now seen it overtake more widely-used cryptocurrencies like Litecoin.
Created as a cryptocurrency parody in 2013, dogecoin is based on the 'Doge' meme, which portrays a Shiba Inu dog.
In February, he offered to buy out so-called dogecoin whales in order to help transform it into the “currency of the internet” with a more stable value.
“If major dogecoin holders sell most of their coins, it will get my full support,” he tweeted.
“Too much concentration is the only real issue imo. I will literally pay actual $ if they just void their accounts.”
The tech billionaire's messages seem to have made a difference, say experts.
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"Anything Musk tweets about shoots higher because he has such a strong following both on social media and as a businessman," Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Markets.com, told in February.
"People will literally invest in him and his ideas, and don’t care what the fundamentals are."