Dogecoin Payments Go Live On Tesla, Sends DOGE Surging

Tesla has announced that it has begun accepting payments in DOGE in its online shop, which means customers will be able to buy merchandise from Tesla’s online shop and pay directly in DOGE. However, Dogecoin cannot be used to buy Tesla’s flagship electric vehicle products, with only select merchandise available for purchase. 

Dogecoin became the second cryptocurrency to be accepted by Tesla after it had briefly started accepting BTC as payment earlier. 

DOGE Payments Go Live 

The Dogecoin payments went live on Friday on the Tesla store, and Elon Musk tweeted out the news to his followers amidst rapturous excitement among users and Dogecoin supporters. Musk put out a simple tweet stating, 

“Tesla merch buyable with Dogecoin”

Following the announcement, Shibetoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Dogecoin, also put out a tweet confirming the news. 

Pricing Information 

Tesla’s online store has now begun displaying pricing information of the products listed in the store in both US Dollars and DOGE. Some of the items that users can purchase using DOGE are the Giga Texas Belt Buckle, which is priced at 835 DOGE or $155.5. Other merchandise that users can purchase with DOGE are the Cyberquad, priced at 12,020 DOGE or $2296, and the Cyberwhistle, which can be purchased for 300 DOGE or $57. 

Tesla’s confirmation of accepting payments in DOGE comes a month after CEO Elon Musk had stated that the company is exploring accepting Dogecoin as payment for official Tesla merchandise. He had stated that the time, 

“Tesla will make some merch buyable with Doge & see how it goes.”

Tesla’s BTC Misadventure 

Dogecoin is the second cryptocurrency to be accepted by Tesla after the company had initially started accepting Bitcoin as payment for its electric cars. Tesla’s BTC pilot project came under significant criticism from several quarters. A couple of months after the announcement, Musk stated that Tesla would no longer be accepting BTC as payment. 

Musk stated that Bitcoin has a considerable impact on the environment and cited this as the main reason why Tesla was backing out from accepting BTC as a mode of payment. However, recently, Musk confirmed that if Bitcoin mining were to become more eco-friendly, then Tesla would start accepting BTC as payment again. He tweeted at the time, 

“When there’s confirmation of reasonable (~50%) clean energy usage by miners with a positive future trend, Tesla will resume allowing Bitcoin transactions.”

DOGE To The Moon 

Not surprisingly, the announcement sent the price of DOGE surging, with the price currently up by almost 14% at the time of writing. DOGE had been relatively bearish in recent weeks, but the announcement saw a flurry of activity that sent the price of the coin from $0.16 to $0.20.

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.