Elon Musk asks Twitter followers if Tesla should accept Dogecoin
Elon Musk on Tuesday asked his followers on Twitter if Tesla should begin accepting the cryptocurrency Dogecoin.
Musk, the CEO of Tesla, posed the question on Twitter in a poll, asking “Do you want Tesla to accept Doge?” with simple “yes” or “no” answer options.
After about seven hours, more than 2.7 million people had answered the Twitter poll. At that point, 77.2 percent of respondents said they wanted Tesla to accept Dogecoin as payment, with 22.8 percent responding “no.”
The tweet comes one day after Musk, the founder of SpaceX, announced that the company would be launching a satellite called DOGE-1 on a mission that will be paid for entirely with dogecoin.
Just days before these moves, however, Musk called Dogecoin a “hustle” during a hosting appearance on “Saturday Night Live,” causing the cryptocurrency to drop at least 28 percent.
He appeared on the show’s “Weekend Update” segment as fictitious financial expert Lloyd Ostertag. When asked about Dogecoin by co-host Colin Jost, Musk explained it is “the future of currency” before conceding that the cryptocurrency is “a hustle.”
In February, Tesla purchased $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin, another popular cryptocurrency, and said it plans on accepting that form of digital money as payment soon.
A number of companies are now accepting, or considering taking, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as payment, according to Business Insider, including businesses in the fast food, big tech, drink and art industries.
Earlier this month, the Oakland Athletics baseball team became the first to allow fans to purchase tickets using Dogecoin.
Musk, one of the richest people in the world, has previously encouraged his internet fans to invest in cryptocurrency, focusing mainly on Dogecoin. The billionaire has been credited by many for the surge in the cryptocurrency’s value.
Last week, however, Musk warned investors on Twitter to “invest with caution.”
“Cryptocurrency is promising, but please invest with caution!” he wrote.