• Founder of US$962 billion market cap Tesla says the company will accept Dogecoin.
• The meme-based crypto soars more than 17.6% over the past 24 hours on the news.
• Elon Musk has been described by Time as a “clown, genius, edgelord, visionary”.

When Time magazine’s newly minted ‘Person of the Year’ speaks, or in this case tweets, people listen.

Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) head honcho Elon Musk has sent the cryptoverse barking mad when he posted a message on Twitter that the electric vehicle (EV) maker will accept Dogecoin as payment for merchandise on a test basis. 

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

That message sent the meme-based cryptocurrency, which features a picture of a Shiba Inu dog, soaring.

According to CoinDesk, Dogecoin is up more than 17.6% in the past 24 hours and is worth nearly US$0.19. It currently has a market capitalisation of US$24.82 billion.

Musk, who only days ago was named Person of the Year, has been a vocal supporter of Dogecoin, and his tweets and public comments have contributed to its rising popularity.

The US$962 billion market cap Tesla which Musk founded, designs, develops, manufactures, sells, and leases EVs and energy generation and storage systems, offering services related to sustainable energy products.

In naming him Person of the Year, Time magazine said Musk, who is also the founder and CEO of space exploration company SpaceX, was a “clown, genius, edgelord, visionary, industrialist, showman”.

He could also be labelled ‘influential’, for want of a better word.