Elon Musk caused a 1000% surge in the price of the Shiba Floki cryptocurrency after tweeting an image of a Shiba Inu dog, captioning it “Floki has arrived.”
The image is actually of Musk’s newest addition to his family, a Shiba Inu puppy named Floki. Musk had announced in a tweet posted in June–during the height of the Dogecoin craze–that his new puppy would be named Floki.
Floki has arrived pic.twitter.com/2MiUKb91FT
— Name (@elonmusk) September 12, 2021
But because of Musk’s infamous history of tweeting about cryptocurrency, especially Dogecoin, many developers have created new, Shiba Inu themed coins hoping to ride the wave of Musk’s promotion of Doge. Thus developers were prepared for the event of a new pump from Musk, having created the “Shiba Floki” token in the time between his first tweet this summer and the puppies actual arrival this Sunday.
Their plan worked: once Musk had published the picture of Floki, Shiba Floki pumped a staggering 1000% in value. Other Floki themed coins like “Floki coin,” “Floki Inu” and “Floki Shiba” experienced rises of 250%, 60%, and 25%.
Dogecoin’s official twitter account offered a playful response to Musk’s tweet, saying “Mr Musk sir, I just want to let you know that your doge is shaped somewhat like a small bean. Thank you. That is all.”
Elon Musk’s tweet follow steady comeback of cryptocurrency
This huge pump in the Doge and Floki inspired arena of cryptocurrency comes on the back of an already massive surge for Dogecoin and the entire crypto market four weeks ago.
On August 17th the market value of cryptocurrency rose back up to $2 trillion with Dogecoin seeing an 18% increase in value.
But Doge was not alone in this climb, Bitcoin, XRP, and Cardano all saw significant pumps in that period, with Bitcoin nearly hitting $50k.
“Bitcoin continues above its critical 200-day moving average,” strategists from Fundstrat, an independent research firm, noted on Friday. “Also on our radar is Cardano (ADA), which after signaling smart contracts are soon to hit the platform earlier this week is up.”
The rise in the market follows the cryptocurrency industry’s unsuccessful attempt to change the crypto tax reporting rules in a U.S. infrastructure bill which allowed for broad oversight of cryptocurrencies.
“The price of Bitcoin was surprisingly resilient in the wake of the news,” said NYDIG Global Head of Research Greg Cipolaro on Saturday. “We interpreted this price action as extremely bullish,” and “we think the recognition of the crypto industry by lawmakers was ultimately a legitimizing event, one that should give investors comfort that this industry is here to stay,” added Cipolaro.
The digital currency market has definitely seen some positive gains this past month, but the $48,000 mark is nowhere near Bitcoin’s April all time high of $64,000. Fear, uncertainty, and doubt still plague the crypto market after it suffered a rough spell earlier this summer.