The Boring Company opened a transit station in Las Vegas on Friday and announced Dogecoin as a new payment method for using the Vegas Loop system, according to reporting from CNN Business.
Boring Company founder and Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in a tweet that he’s “supporting Doge wherever possible,” in response to CNN Business’s story being shared on Twitter, all but confirming the new use case for Dogecoin, the tenth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, according to CoinMarketCap.
The Las Vegas Convention Center Loop has three different stations at exhibition halls within the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) and will one day provide an underground connection to Resorts World Las Vegas. Based on the destination, travel times using the tunnel system vary between one and four minutes.
Supporting Doge wherever possible
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 6, 2022
It consists of 1.7 miles of tunnels and was built in just a year. The tunnel system reduces a cross-campus journey that typically takes 45 minutes of walking to around two, according to the company’s website, and cost $47 million to build.
Currently, drivers using Teslas can travel underground from Resorts World to the LVCC, but in order to use the tunnels connecting the exhibition halls, drivers must exit one tunnel through a station called Riviera and cross a parking lot to enter another called West Station.
While rides using the Loop are currently free, riders will eventually be able to scan a QR code at the New Resorts station and purchase tickets using Dogecoin or a traditional credit card, according to CNN Business.
It is the latest example of Musk using one of his businesses to shed a positive light on Dogecoin, a meme coin created as a joke back in 2013. In May, Musk announced that merchandise for Tesla could be purchased using Dogecoin and that SpaceX would soon follow suit.
Tesla merch can be bought with Doge, soon SpaceX merch too
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 27, 2022
Musk has championed Dogecoin for years, through spats with the coin’s co-founder and an appearance on SNL that saw the asset’s price plummet following the episode’s debut. Last month, the billionaire said he will keep supporting Dogecoin on Twitter. When a user replied to the statement saying Musk should keep buying Dogecoin, he responded, “I am.”
Under the attention of Musk, Dogecoin reached a peak of 73 cents in May of last year. The Tesla CEO originally sparked fervor around Dogecoin back in 2019 when he tweeted, “Dogecoin may be my fav cryptocurrency.”
Want to be a crypto expert? Get the best of Decrypt straight to your inbox.
Get the biggest crypto news stories + weekly roundups and more!
Source: https://decrypt.co/104535/elon-musk-boring-company-dogecoin