Dogecoin surges 11% as payments go live on Tesla store

What to know

• Dogecoin (DOGE) payments went live on the Tesla store in Asian hours on Friday, with prices seeing an 11% increase shortly afterward.

• The store displays pricing information in both U.S. dollars and dogecoin. The Giga Texas Belt Buckle lists for 835 DOGE (≈$155.5); the Cyberquad sells for 12,020 DOGE (≈$2,296), while a Cyberwhistle goes for 300 DOGE (≈$57).

• Dogecoin was trading at $0.19 at the time of writing and is the world’s 11th largest cryptocurrency with a market capitalization of $24 billion.

• The move comes nearly a month after Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in December 2021 that the electric-car maker would accept Dogecoin as payment for its merchandise. “Tesla will make some merch buyable with Doge & see how it goes,” he said at the time.

• Earlier this year, Tesla started accepting bitcoin as payment for its electric cars. The pilot proved short-lived amid rising concerns about Bitcoin’s energy usage and was soon dropped.