Twitter boss Elon Musk has changed the microblogging site’s logo from a bird to a “doge” of his favourite cryptocurrency, Dogecoin. The change came out of nowhere on Monday to replace the traditional bird logo in the Twitter web interface – but not in mobile applications.
The Dogecoin blockchain and cryptocurrency feature an image of a Shiba Inu dog as part of its logo. Dogecoin was created in 2013 as a joke, with the intention of mocking other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.
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On January 14, 2022, Musk’s electric carmaker, Tesla, began allowing people to purchase branded merchandise using Dogecoin. The crypto’s value surged in the wake of the announcement, though it later fell back.
Musk’s comments have often influenced the prices of digital currencies, including Dogecoin and Bitcoin.
This latest action was taken a month after Musk teased the plans on Twitter and stated Tesla would experiment with the digital token as a payment option, causing Dogecoin prices to sharply rise.
What was the promise?
All this promise saga started exactly a year ago, when Musk created a poll on Twitter saying, “Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy. Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?”
People chose the No option with 70.4 percent of the total 2,035,924 votes [as of now], and Musk quoted that previous tweet: “Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy. What should be done?” on March 26.
Musk even asked if “a new platform is needed.” Chairman, whose tweet has gone viral since yesterday’s logo change, responded by stating “just buy Twitter” in the first comment, which was followed by a second: “and change the bird logo to a doge.”
“Haha that would sickkk,” was Musk’s immediate response.
Yesterday, the billionaire marked one year since the suggestion by acting on Chairman’s suggestion.
As promised pic.twitter.com/Jc1TnAqxAV
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 3, 2023
Immediately after changing the logo, Musk tweeted a screenshot of that particular conversation, stating, “As promised.”
The change in logo followed a request from Musk’s legal team to dismiss a $258 billion racketeering lawsuit that accused him of running a pyramid scheme to manipulate the value of Dogecoin. The request was made a few days before the logo change.
Dogecoin soars 30%
Musk’s tweets about Dogecoin have consistently had a significant impact on the value of the meme coin, and it’s no surprise the recent logo swap led to an almost 30% surge in its value, according to CoinMarketCap.
Twitter looking a little different.
— Binance (@binance) April 3, 2023
Dogecoin opened at $0.079 on Monday, and trading volume was $929,778,146 at the end of the previous day. Following the announcement, the popular meme coin hit $0.1026 initially after the announcement and closed at $0.096, with a trading volume of $3,497,240,136.
At the time of writing, Doge is trading at the price of $0.099 per coin.
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