Elon Musk has managed to make another cryptocurrency surge in price with his tweet, although it wasn't necessarily what he'd intended.
In a response to a question posed by Changpeng Zhao, the founder and CEO of Binance cryptocurrency exchange, the tech mogul said that if he set up his own cryptocurrency, there will “definitely be a MarsCoin”.
The multi-billionaire, however, seemed to be unaware that there is already a MarsCoin cryptocurrency in existence, set up by its creators in 2014 as a “public funding model for space colonisation”.
The cryptocurrency made a steep jump in value after Musk’s tweet, rising from $0.07 to $2.5 at its peak. It dropped down later, however, fluctuating near $0.5.
Earlier, Musk said on Twitter that he would support big Dogecoin cryptocurrency holders if they sell their assets, saying that there’s an issue of “too much concentration”.
The Shiba Inu meme-themed crypto coin invented by software engineers seven years ago as a “fun” and instant means of making transactions, started surging at the beginning of this month after Musk gave his support to the cryptocurrency with viral tweets.
Another blockchain-based cryptocurrency that is now considered the world's biggest by market capitalisation and the amount of data stored on its blockchain has recently significantly gained in value, enjoying support from the tech multi-billionaire.
Tesla, a major electric car manufacturer founded by Musk, recently announced that it had invested $1.5 billion in the cryptocurrency in January. Since then, Bitcoin has been sharply gaining in value, surging past $52,000 per coin.