This week, Twitter made a drastic change to its logo, replacing its traditional blue bird with an image of a shiba inu dog – a popular figure in the crypto world. The photo in particular was of Dogecoin’s logo, a cryptocurrency that Tesla CEO (and Twitter’s owner) Elon Musk has a storied and intricate relationship with.
Dogecoin was created in 2013 by software engineers Billy Marcus and Jackson Palmer as a humorous commentary on the crypto and stock market speculation that was so rampant at the time. However, it quickly gained a cult-like following, especially on the WallStreetBets Reddit page that was responsible for the massive surge in GameStop’s stock price this year. This sudden popularity was in part due to Musk’s support of the cryptocurrency.
Unfortunately, the crypto market crash in 2022 caused Dogecoin’s price to drop drastically to $0.05. Prior to taking the reins of Twitter, Musk tweeted a query about free speech principles not being adhered to, to which @WSBChairman replied, ‘just buy Twitter and change the bird logo to a doge.’ To which Musk replied, ‘That would be sickkk.’
As promised, this week, the world’s second-richest man according to Forbes’ latest billionaire rankings, Musk, (who owns 74% of Twitter) changed the logo to the Dogecoin icon. This has prompted speculation as to the timing of the switch, especially considering that in June of 2022, Musk was sued for $258 billion for allegedly running a pyramid scheme to inflate the price of Dogecoin.
Musk has been vocal about his support of Dogecoin, having made a number of tweets about it in the past. Last week, his legal team attempted to dismiss the lawsuit, claiming there was ‘nothing unlawful’ about the tweets. The logo change has been seen by some as a way for Musk to troll those involved in the case, while others think it could have been an April Fools Day joke delayed due to the pandemic.
Since the logo switch, Dogecoin’s price has risen by over 30%, now sitting at 10.2 cents. It will be interesting to see if this trend continues, or if it was just a fluke. Either way, it’s clear that Musk and Dogecoin have a bond that has been solidified by this week’s Twitter logo change.
