The Elon Musk Effect? ApeCoin Skyrockets Minutes After Twitter Callout

ApeCoin (APE) prices skyrocketed on Wednesday after Tesla CEO Elon Musk changed his Twitter profile picture to feature several Bored Apes.

APE jumped  over 15% within minutes after Musk’s move, and is now trading positive for the day at $17.25, according to data from Coinmarketcap.com. The move also helped APE break a four-day losing streak, which saw it sharply consolidate from record highs of $26.

It is unclear whether the Tesla CEO personally holds any APE. But he is reportedly the owner of a Bored Ape NFT.

APE was one of the best-performing cryptocurrencies through April, as traders anticipated the release of Bored Apes creator Yuga Labs’ new metaverse, Otherside. But the token fell consistently after the launch, despite efforts by Yuga to prevent it from falling.

But demand for Otherside NFTs had caused widespread disruptions across Ethereum, the network it is based on. Gas fees reached record highs during the project’s launch.

Not Musk’s first crypto pump

APE’s current price surge is far from the Tesla head’s first crypto pump. His tweets on Dogecoin had broadly supported prices, and are also credited with bringing the token into mainstream trade. Musk had also briefly sported the Shiba Inu associated with DOGE as his profile picture on Twitter.

DOGE has rallied on hints from Musk that he could incorporate the token into Twitter after his takeover of the social media platform. In March, Musk had revealed that he personally holds DOGE, prompting a small rally in the token.

Offhand comments from the world’s richest man have also supported the prices of Shiba Inu, while seemingly pro-crypto statements have spurred brief market rallies.

The Tesla CEO’s tweets have landed him in hot water

But while Musk’s tweeting on the crypto market has been largely overlooked by regulators, his tweets on the stock market have put him at odds with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 

In 2018, Musk caused Tesla’s stock to rally after he tweeted that he would take the company private at a $420.69 share price, and that he had secured funding for the deal. His Twitter poll on whether he should offload Tesla stock in 2021 had also invited a slew of shareholder lawsuits, as the stock price fell.

With more than five years of experience covering global financial markets, Ambar intends to leverage this knowledge towards the rapidly expanding world of crypto and DeFi. His interest lies chiefly in finding how geopolitical developments can impact crypto markets, and what that could mean for your bitcoin holdings. When he isn’t trawling through the web for the latest breaking news, you can find him playing videogames or watching Seinfeld reruns.
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