Dogecoin Gains 8% On Elon Musk Comments on DOGE Payments

After Elon Musk's newest publicity stunt, Dogecoin's (DOGE) price rose to near 8%, the cryptocurrency may require a new marketing strategy.

"Dogefather" Musk claimed in a tweet on July 8 that Dogecoin might be a superior payment system than Bitcoin (BTC) or Ethereum (ETH).

Dogecoin (DOGE) is a cryptocurrency that is based on the popular Internet meme "doge" and has a Shiba Inu as its logo. Dogecoin's developers envisioned it as a lighthearted, humorous cryptocurrency that would appeal to a wider audience than only Bitcoin users.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO was reacting to crypto YouTuber Matt Wallace, who expressed enthusiasm about an imminent protocol change, the latest in a long line of plugs.

"BTC and ETH are working on a multilayer transaction system," Musk said, "but the base layer transaction rate is slow and transaction costs are high."

With a 24-hour trading volume of $2,901,278,982 USD, the current Dogecoin price is $0.218396 USD. In the previous 24 hours, Dogecoin has gained 2.39 percent.

SHIBA INU (SHIB) had previously competed with DOGE as retail investors flocked into meme trades. With his own social media operations, Musk has inadvertently diverted focus away from DOGE. The pair is still down 70% from its all-time highs on May 8, when Musk went on Saturday Night Live to promote Dogecoin to a wider audience.