Elon Musk says Tesla will start accepting dogecoin

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said the electric car maker will begin accepting payments in dogecoin for some products.

The announcement comes just a few months after Tesla backtracked on its decision to accept payments in bitcoin, citing environmental concerns about the way the cryptocurrency is mined.

“Tesla will make some merch buyable with Doge & see how it goes,” Musk tweeted on Tuesday.

The price of dogecoin surged following the announcement, rising more than 14 percent in the space of just a few minutes.

The tech billionaire has been a long-time advocate for the meme-based cryptocurrency and has personally invested in it. In May, he asked his Twitter followers if Tesla should accept payments in dogecoin, with more than three-quarters of respondents saying yes.

Do you want Tesla to accept Doge?

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 11, 2021

Earlier this week, Musk said that dogecoin worked better than bitcoin as a form of payment as it could handle higher transaction volumes and does not have a fixed supply.

“Even though it was created as a silly joke, dogecoin is actually better suited for transactions,” he told Time magazine, who named him Person of the Year 2021 on Monday.

“It is slightly inflationary... but that’s actually good as it encourages people to spend rather than to hoard it as a store of value.”

Dogecoin co-founder Billy Markus responded to the comments by tweeting: “I think it’s safe to say the cofounder of PayPal might know a little something about money, so you know, it may be interesting to take a listen.”

From news to politics, travel to sport, culture to climate – The Telegraph has a host of free newsletters to suit your interests. To find the stories you want to read, and more, in your inbox, click here.