Elon Effect? Doge Runs Amid Rumors Tesla CEO Working With Vitalik Buterin On Upgrading Meme Coin

Dogecoin DOGE/USD has been on a tear since Wednesday, and the rally accelerated over the weekend.

What Happened: Doge breached the psychological resistance of $0.10 on Sunday and was last seen trading at $0.1045, up 15.68%, according to Benzinga Pro data. The meme crypto’s rally has been accompanied by heavy volume, with 1.75 billion coins exchanging hands. The rally by the dog-themed currency has come even as most major cryptocurrencies saw muted trading.

David Gokhshtein, who runs crypto media firm Gokhshtein Media, tweeted on Friday that he expects Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Ethereum ETH/USD co-founder Vitalik Buterin to work together to upgrade Doge. The two entrepreneurs, meanwhile, are unlikely to work on Bitcoin BTC/USD because Buterin made an attempt in the past but could not succeed, he added.

The rumored Musk involvement could have been the reason for the spike in Doge, reports said.

See also: Litecoin And 4 Other Cryptos That Rallied 20% Or More This Week Even As Bitcoin Flatlined

Musk’s takeover of Twitter has proved positive for Doge as crypto investors began discounting the possibility of the billionaire using the meme coin as a payment option on the social media platform

Why It’s Important: Dogecoin developers released its Core 1,14.16 upgrade in late July. The minor version release introduced essential security updates and changes to network efficiency. Musk had commented at that time the upgrade is important.

Meanwhile, Ethereum underwent The Merge in mid-September, which completed the crypto’s transition to a proof-of-stake consensus. This reduces the crypto’s energy consumption significantly.

Doge, meanwhile, is a peer-to-peer, open-source crypto launched in Dec. 2013, and it has the Shiba Inu breed of dog as its mascot. 

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Photo: Courtesy of TechCrunch and Dunk on flickr.