Hours ahead of Elon Musk’s appearance on Saturday Night Live, the Tesla CEO appeared intent on cooling the flurry of hype he had created around the meme cryptocurrency Dogecoin (DOGE).
Months of light-hearted build-up led to a sobering punchline on Thursday, as Musk reminded his Twitter followers that cryptocurrency investments remained speculative. Musk reposted a TMZ interview from February, in which he responded to whether he thought Dogecoin was made less valuable by the fact of its inflationary supply. Musk conceded that this was the case at the time, adding:
“I think people should not invest their life savings in cryptocurrency, to be clear. I think that’s unwise.”
Musk said he thought there was a chance that cryptocurrency could become the primary currency used on earth, but knowing which one it would be remained guess work.
“There’s a good chance that crypto is the future currency of earth… and then it’s like: Which one is it gonna be? And maybe it will be multiple. But it should be considered speculation at this point,” Musk said at the time.
Dogecoin became one of the crypto stories of the year following Musk’s decision to adopt what was already a joke coin gone astray. Doge’s subsequent 14,000% surge in 2021 was helped in part by Musk’s social media posts and the desire by traders to pump a near-dead coin in a manner similar to stocks like GameStop and AMC.
Even as Musk reminded investors to be wary, the dollar value of DOGE rebounded 23% early on Friday morning, after losing a quarter of its value following the mid-week surge to $0.69. The coin price jumped from $0.52 to $0.64 in the hours immediately after Musk posted the TMZ video on Twitter, accompanied by the warning: “Cryptocurrency is promising, but please invest with caution!”
However, Musk proposed that the most entertaining outcome could be the one that ultimately takes hold. In reference to Dogecoin, Musk said:
“Fate loves irony. Like, what would be the most ironic outcome? That the currency that was invented as a joke in fact becomes the real currency.”
Reporters bombarded Musk with claims that his tweets had caused their Dogecoin investments to go up — a general trend that’s backed by more than a degree of evidence.
Musk had previously claimed he would welcome any official investigation into the effect of his tweets on the price of Dogecoin, but when asked about the potential to see one more price-moving tweet from him, the Tesla CEO responded in the negative.
“No,” said Musk, getting into his car. “Well, that’s it,” he added. “Don’t take too much risk on crypto.”
Disclaimer: This article was updated to reflect the correct time of Elon Musk’s interview with TMZ.