Twitter surprised users on Monday by replacing its normal “blue bird” homepage icon with a picture of dogecoin’s cartoon Shiba Inu dog – a change that prompted the cryptocurrency to soar as much as 30%.
Dogecoin’s well-known meme mascot was visible in the top-left of Twitter’s homepage beginning on Monday afternoon – a spot typically reserved for the social media site’s logo.
As of approximately 2:45 p.m. ET, dogecoin had pared some of its gains but was still trading nearly 20% higher at roughly 10 cents per token – its highest level since early February.
Twitter CEO Elon Musk – a major proponent and booster for dogecoin – commented on the change by sharing a cartoon depicting a “doge” interacting with a police officer.
Dogecoin’s Twitter account reacted to the change with a reference to the famous meme that sparked the currency’s reaction.
“Very currency. Wow. Much Coin. How Money. So Crypto,” the account tweeted.
“Twitter looking a little different,” said the official account for cryptocurrency exchange Binance.
It’s unclear what prompted the change. However, the dogecoin logo appeared just days after Musk’s lawyers asked a judge to dismiss a $258 billion racketeering lawsuit accusing the billionaire of running a “pyramid scheme” to boost the digital currency’s value.
Lawyers for Musk and Tesla called the lawsuit a”fanciful work of fiction” over Musk’s “innocuous and often silly tweets” about Dogecoin,” according to Reuters.
“There is nothing unlawful about tweeting words of support for, or funny pictures about, a legitimate cryptocurrency that continues to hold a market cap of nearly $10 billion,” Musk’s attorneys said in a Friday filing. “This court should put a stop to plaintiffs’ fantasy and dismiss the complaint.”
Last month, Musk revealed that all media inquiries sent to Twitter’s press email account would receive an auto-reply of a single poop emoji. The billionaire dissolved Twitter’s communications team last year as part of major layoffs.
Musk has frequently touted his support for dogecoin, tweeting last June that he was still buying the meme token even as other cryptocurrencies fell in value.
Last year, Tesla began accepting dogecoin as payment for some items available in its online store. Musk has also floated the possibility that dogecoin will be integrated as a form of payment on Twitter at some point.
With Post wires
[Written in collaboration with other media outlets with information from the following sources]
