Dogecoin, which Tesla CEO Elon Musk called his “favorite cryptocurrency” in 2019, could return as a payment option on the electric car maker’s website.
Recall January 2022, when Tesla began accepting meme tokens as a payment option for certain products (e.g. clothing and accessories) in its online store.
At one point, Dogecoin (DOGE) mysteriously disappeared from the payment options, and fans asked X.com if there was a chance they would bring back Dogecoin.
Musk, who owns a majority stake in X.com and Tesla, has shown interest.
“Me too,” Musk wrote in response to User X, who asked if anyone wanted Tesla to “reintroduce” a “dogecoin payment option” for its products. See below.
Currently, Tesla stores only accept credit cards for payment. It is unclear when or why Dogecoin was removed from the payment options. The Austin, Texas-based company has never widely accepted Dogecoin for car payments, and there has been no official announcement that it is “removing” it from the payment options.
Is Musk an environmental activist?
Tesla’s cryptocurrency payment policy is particularly confusing, as Musk posted in 2021 that the company “plans to use (bitcoin) for transactions as soon as the mine transitions to more sustainable energy.”
See below.
Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Dogecoin require significant amounts of electricity to process transactions and keep their networks secure.
Environmentalists and investors have pointed out that the carbon footprint associated with cryptocurrency trading appears to conflict with Tesla’s clean energy initiatives.
It’s also worth noting that Musk is a staunch supporter of former President and current Republican nominee Donald Trump, who has pledged to roll back his clean energy plans if re-elected.
court drama
Musk’s stance on Dogecoin comes less than 24 hours after U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein dismissed a federal lawsuit alleging the Tesla CEO defrauded investors through insider trading and market manipulation in Dogecoin.
The lawsuit claims Musk used his status as the world’s richest person to inflate the price of Dogecoin by more than “36,000%” before causing it to crash, resulting in losses for investors.
The plaintiffs argued that Musk’s actions could be justified as a “Dogecoin pyramid scheme” in which he promoted the cryptocurrency in order to profit from the volatility he claimed to have created.
The price of DOGE once reached an all-time high of $0.73, but has not yet reached that level.
Hellerstein said all statements about Dogecoin are “aspirational and blustery, not factual” and “no rational investor can rely on them to make investment decisions.”
The judge also found that the facts did not support the plaintiffs’ claims of a “pump and dump” scheme, market manipulation and insider trading, emphasizing that he was “incomprehensible to the arguments” upon which those claims were based.
It’s unclear whether the dismissal of the Dogecoin lawsuit will allow Tesla fans to once again use Dogecoin as a means of payment for things like Cybertruck T-shirts.