How Elon Musk's Twitter Acquisition Affected Dogecoin

After protracted negotiations, lawsuits and counter claims, Elon Musk's controversial acquisition of social media platform Twitter has finally gone through. Musk had tried to back out of the $44 billion deal, claiming that the valuation was unrealistic, but was eventually persuaded to part with the cash and acquire the site.

As well as the legal brouhaha surrounding the sale, Musk's interest in Twitter has also come under fire from those who are concerned he will dial down the platform's post curation and censorship policies, allowing misinformation to run rampant. But while the left might be up in arms over the sale, there is one group who certainly stands to benefit: Dogecoin investors.

Dogecoin on the up

Even prior to the deal being finalized, Dogecoin was already experiencing a fillip from Musk's interest. On the 27th October, one day before the sale was completed, the cryptocurrency enjoyed a 35% surge in market value, as savvy investors scrambled to amass Dogecoin assets in anticipation of the takeover.

That was only the beginning, however. In the few days after the acquisition was made public, Dogecoin doubled its value from the previous week. At the time of writing, it was trading at $0.1151 and had a market cap of $17.1 billion, meaning it has surpassed rival coins like Cardano and Solana to become the eight-biggest cryptocurrency on the market.

A long-time supporter

The reasons behind the surge in Dogecoin value relates to Musk's well-documented support for it. Originally launched in 2013 as a "joke" currency which used a viral dog meme (of a Shiba Inu dog named Kabosu), Dogecoin has gained widespread popularity among the online community – including from one of the world's richest men.

Musk has already accepted the use of dogecoin as a viable means of payment for merchandise of his multi-billion-dollar automotive company, Tesla, in January of this year. Then in May, he hinted that he may follow the same company with SpaceX, his other highly lucrative space travel venture. Naturally, many have assumed that his takeover of Twitter will precede the same approach for the social media platform.

A merger with Cardano?

One individual who certainly seems to think so is Charles Hoskinson, the founder of rival altcoin Cardano. Taking to Twitter, the entrepreneur wrote: "Now that Twitter is in the hands of @elonmusk I can see a real possibility that doge will somehow merge with the platform."

What's more, Hoskinson has also posited the idea of Cardano and Dogecoin merging so that the latter could become a sidechain of the former. He has indicated that he would process the mechanics of the integration for free and would also add smart contracts to Dogecoin, which would significantly increase its functionality. Meanwhile, exchange platform Binance has offered to develop a Twitter-specific blockchain system to overcome issues with bots on the site.

While the long-term future of Dogecoin remains unclear – as it does with the entire cryptocurrency industry – the short-term news is certainly good for Dogecoin investors.