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Elon Musk dogecoin tweet lifts bitcoin

Tesla CEO Elon Musk gestures as he visits the construction site of Tesla's Gigafactory in Gruenheide near Berlin, Germany, August 13, 2021. Patrick Pleul/Pool via Reuters
Tesla CEO Elon Musk came out in support of the meme-based cryptocurrency dogecoin, which boosted its share price. Photo:Patrick Pleul/Pool via Reuters

Cryptocurrencies were broadly up on Thursday morning as Tesla (TESLA) CEO Elon Musk tweeted in support of the meme-based cryptocurrency dogecoin.

Billy Markus, one of the co-creators of the joke token, had tweeted dogecoin miners – those who keep the network secure in return for freshly minted coin – who do not update their software are “satan”.

Musk replied with a simple “100”. He also responded with a thumb-up emoji and a laughing emoji for other similar tweets by Markus.

Musk's tweets about the crypto space often have a major impact on their prices and dogecoin is no different.

Dogecoin (DOGE-USD) was up roughly 6% to trade at $0.236 (£0.17).

Bitcoin (BTC-USD) surged 5% at the time of writing, to trade at $57,595. It is still holding above the key level of $50,000.

Ethereum (ETH-USD), the second largest crypto in the world by market cap, was soaring 5.6% higher and trading at $3,640.

“Bitcoin has set off to a flying start in October with gains of 31%, outperforming all the other market-cap weighted indexes by a wide margin,” said Sam Kopelman, UK manager of Luno, a global cryptocurrency exchange and wallet.

“The rising expectations for a bitcoin exchange-traded fund shown by rising open interest, and growing basis premiums for CME futures may be a cause of the bullish momentum."

BItcoin's price was up on Thursday morning. Chart: Yahoo Finance UK
BItcoin's price was up on Thursday morning. Chart: Yahoo Finance UK

He added that CME’s share of the global open interest in bitcoin futures reached 17% this week – the highest level recorded since February 2021, "suggesting institutional traders have returned to bitcoin".

Meanwhile Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at AvaTrade, said “investors should understand that blockchain technology is now being adopted on the ground and used to conduct transactions by consumers as well as businesses, making it simple for consumers to comprehend how beneficial the movement is.”

He added that “consumers should keep in mind that it is no longer difficult to understand how digital assets can be used practically, as seen in El Salvador, which has declared bitcoin to be legal tender.”

He gave the example of BlockFi’s Visa-backed credit card, the results of which he described as “astonishing”.

Watch: What are the risks of investing in cryptocurrency?

The company has said the average BlockFi card holder will spend $30,000 per year and its projections have shown BlockFi cardholders are likely to spend more than $2bn annually,

“This demonstrates the vast market on which digital assets can capitalise on.”

Read more: European stock markets steady despite energy crisis concerns

Aslam also noted that Larry Fink, the CEO of BlackRock (BLK), has said he sees massive opportunities in the sector.

He said “I do believe there is a huge role for a digitized currency and I believe that's going to help consumers worldwide”

However, when it comes to bitcoin specifically, he said he was “probably more on the Jamie Dimon camp”.

Earlier this week, JP Morgan (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon called bitcoin "worthless" and said cryptocurrencies will be regulated by governments.

Watch: What is bitcoin?