Tesla CEO Elon Musk has announced that his company will accept dogecoin as payment for merchandise on a test basis. The announcement has pushed the meme-based cryptocurrency up by over 20%. On January 14, Musk tweeted “Tesla merch buyable with Dogecoin”.

“Tesla will make some merch buyable with Doge & see how it goes,” Musk said in a tweet. Amid broader market declines, Tesla shares were 3% down in early trading. According to a Reuters report, Dogecoin, popular among retail investors, surged up to $0.20 after the tweet.

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According to  data from Coinbase, Musk’s tweets have led the meme coin to grow 5,859% over the past year.

Musk did not specifically mention what merchandise could be bought with dogecoin. Tesla merchandise starts from $50 and goes as high as $1,900. It sells apparel, ‘Giga Texas’ belt buckles,  models of its vehicles, and limited edition products such as ‘Cyberwhistle’. Tesla recently launched a quadbike ‘Cyberquad’ for children, it is modeled after the much-awaited Cybertruck.

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In a recent interview with Time magazine, Musk endorsed dogecoin by saying that it is better for transactions. In May 2021, he asked users if they wanted Tesla to accept dogecoin in a Twitter poll. During his guest-host spot on  ‘Saturday Night Live’ he called dogecoin a ‘hustle’.

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Elon Musk has been a supporter of the crypto community for many years. His latest announcement will start a new era of commerce and create a path for altcoins to expand their use case, said Chris Kline, co-founder of Bitcoin IRA.

Musk has over 66 million Twitter followers. He has been constantly tweeting about cryptocurrencies.

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Previously, Tesla announced that it will accept Bitcoin for car purchases but took back the decision in less than two months. Tom Martin, senior portfolio manager at Globalt Investment said that he views it as being mercurial or just making fun.