Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is one of those tech futurists who believes that paper money is doomed to be replaced by cryptocurrencies. He has called Bitcoin “a brilliant thing” and said he’d want Ethereum “even if it’s a scam.” But neither digital coin is his favorite. In a tweet on Tuesday, Musk revealed that the cryptocurrency he likes the most is actually Dogecoin, an internet meme-inspired cryptocurrency that’s been around since 2013.
“Dogecoin might be my favorite cryptocurrency. It’s pretty cool,” Musk said in a tweet in response to a poll started by Dogecoin’s official Twitter account on April 1 asking who would make the best CEO for the cryptocurrency—should it ever need one.
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Musk won the majority of votes from more than 4,000 participants over his three competitors: Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin, Litecoin founder Charlie Lee and Metal Pay founder Marshall Hayner.
We have listened to your concerns. We have decided that Dogecoin does need a CEO. Someone who can lead us into the future while maintaining the core values of what we are.
Below are the candidates, vote wisely.@VitalikButerin @SatoshiLite @elonmusk @MarshallHayner
— Dogecoin (@dogecoin) April 1, 2019
As you may have guessed from its name, Dogecoin was first introduced as sort of joke coin. Its creators, Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer, drew their inspiration from the viral popularity of the “Doge” meme in 2013 and issued the coin in December of that year with a starting trading value of $0.0005 and a cap of 100 billion mineable coins.
To the creators’ surprise, Dogecoin quickly gained popularity among the crypto community and amassed its own fanbase on various online forums, including Reddit.
Since inception, Dogecoin’s total market value has grown nearly 600 percent to $400 million. As of now, it’s the 25th largest cryptocurrency trading in the market.
Musk was evidently very proud of the crypto community’s faith in him. He even changed his Twitter bio to “CEO of Dogecoin” on Tuesday and tweeted a picture of a Shiba Inu dog with the caption “Dogecoin Rulz.” (He later updated his bio to “former CEO of Dogecoin.”)
Dogecoin rulz pic.twitter.com/flWWUgAgLU
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 2, 2019
