© Illustration by Alex Cochran, Deseret News Dogecoin and Bitcoin had massive drops in value this week.Dogecoin and Bitcoin were the two cryptocurrencies that suffered such a massive drop in recent days, leading to an overall dip in cryptocurrency market value, according to MarketWatch.
- Bitcoin was valued at about $43,047.15 on Monday, which is down 30% from the $65,000 peak it reached in April.
- Dogecoin traded at $0.48, which is down 36% from the $0.75 peak in early May around the time Tesla CEO Elon Musk appeared on “Saturday Night Live.”
Per MarketWatch, the cryptocurrency declines led to an overall decline in the overall cryptocurrency market. In total, the market dropped $500 billion in value, falling from $2.545 trillion in value to $2.02 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.com.
Why did Dogecoin and Bitcoin drop?
Bitcoin and Dogecoin dropped for similar but different reasons. For Bitcoin, much of the drop can be attributed to Musk, who said Tesla would stop accepting Bitcoin until it became more environmentally friendly, as I wrote for the Deseret News.
- Musk said in a tweet: “We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel.”
- “Cryptocurrency is a good idea … but this cannot come at great cost to the environment.”
Dogecoin, meanwhile, is mostly driven by social media hype. The cryptocurrency dropped after Musk appeared on “Saturday Night Live,” when investors sold off their holdings. The drop happened especially after Musk called Dogecoin a “hustle” on “Saturday Night Live,”
However, Dogecoin may be setting itself up for a bounce-back as Musk seems to be hinting that Tesla may accept Dogecoin instead of Bitcoin when he asked Tesla consumers if they would use Dogecoin to buy a car during the same week he announced Bitcoin would no longer be accepted.
