Musk’s tweet about ‘new university’ raises Dogecoin market cap

A discount on tuition if you own a dog is one of the advantages Elon Musk is offering in potentially opening a university based in Texas.

A champion of cryptocurrency, Musk has been a staunch supporter of Dogecoin and apparently is set to take that support to the next level by accepting the crypto for tuition fees in a university Musk tweeted – perhaps tongue-in-cheek – he’s thinking of opening.

Named the ‘Texas Institute of Technology and Science’, the tweet immediately went viral, whether it be for its infantile name or the possibility of its future existence, the reaction transcended social media and made its mark on Dogecoin, adding $3bn to its market cap.

The price of Dogecoin rose minutes after the tweet from $0.25 to $0.28, demonstrating Musk’s continuing influence on the cryptocurrency he’s been dubbed the CEO of.

Despite its slight increase, Dogecoin remains behind rival Shiba Inu on CoinMarketCap.

The Musk effect

Musk has been extremely active on Twitter on his support for Dogecoin, first tweeting about it in 2019, as its risen through the ranks to establish itself as a top 10 cryptocurrency nearing the end of the year.

The billionaire spoke about the inspiration behind owning Dogecoin and advocating it on social media.

“Lots of people I talked to on the production lines at Tesla or building rockets at SpaceX own Doge,” Musk said.

“They aren’t financial experts or Silicon Valley technologists. That’s why I decided to support Doge – it felt like the people’s crypto.”