It’s a crypto Christmas miracle.
A cryptocurrency named after Elon Musk’s dog multiplied in value this weekend after the world’s richest man posted a photo of his cute canine on Twitter.
Santa Floki coin — named in a Christmas-themed reference to Musk’s Shiba Inu hound, Floki —surged more than 3,000 percent following a tweet from Elon Musk. It was up an additional 500 percent over the past 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap data.
On Dec. 25, Musk posted a photo of his dog wearing a Santa costume with the caption “Floki Santa.” While Musk seems to have just been referencing the fact that his dog was wearing a costume, Santa Floki’s creators pounced on the opportunity to promote their coin.
“@elonmusk just tweeted about us and we are humbled by this recognition!” the creators declared on Twitter.
Santa Floki subsequently surged from $0.0000000129 per coin prior to Musk’s tweet to $0.000001718 on Monday.
Like Dogecoin, Shiba Inu coin, Flokinomics and others, Santa Floki features a Shiba Inu dog as its mascot and has been propelled by social media hype.
Proponents of these coins typically follow a well-worn strategy: name a coin after a meme such as Elon Musk’s dog — then relentlessly promote the coin online to send its price soaring. The most lucrative promotion is a shoutout from the Tesla CEO himself.
Most other cryptocurrencies that have gained steam based on short term social media hype have subsequently crashed and burned.