Dogecoin added to Tesla store
In a surprising turn of events, you can now buy Tesla merchandise with Dogecoin. Tesla's website has been updated to reflect this change, and there are a few items listed that now only accept the meme-like cryptocurrency as payment. That's right — the merchandise sold for Dogecoin can no longer be bought with US dollars and requires the customer to own crypto in order to make a purchase.
Only a few items are sold for doge (Dogecoin,) including the Cyberquad for Kids, the Cyberwhistle, and the Giga Texas Belt Buckle. These items range from 300 doge ($58) for the Cyberwhistle (shown below in a screenshoot captured at 11:50AM on January 14, 2022) to 12,020 doge ($2,320) for the Cyberquad.
Although the Cyberquad is sold out and the only way to get one is through a reseller on eBay, this small change in the Tesla merch store was enough to make Dogecoin soar in price. According to CoinDesk, the cryptocurrency has gone up in value by 15.26% over the last 24 hours (approximately 11:30 AM from January 13th to 14th, 2022).
While cryptocurrencies are known to be volatile, and Dogecoin is one of the more unpredictable coins, it's hard not to assume that the change in value is largely thanks to the Tesla merchandise. It's not so much about the number of items for sale as it is about the acknowledgment of Dogecoin as a valid currency. But how long will it be until Tesla stops accepting Dogecoin as payment?
Will Dogecoin last longer than Bitcoin in the Tesla store?
The current good tides for Dogecoin started with Elon Musk's simple tweet, announcing that it is now a valid currency within the Tesla merchandise shop. That, in itself, is not unusual — Elon Musk's Twitter activity has a tendency to affect the crypto market in the most ridiculous ways, such as the time Musk tweeted a meme about Bitcoin, causing the currency to suffer a market crash soon after.
The surprising fact is that Tesla went back to accepting cryptocurrency as payment at all. The company already had a brief stint with accepting Bitcoin as payment for its Tesla cars back in February 2021. However, it was short-lived due to the carbon footprint left behind by bitcoin mining. As Musk himself has stated at the time, the environmental impact of BTC (Bitcoin) is simply too massive to ignore. From that point on, the Tesla store didn't accept any cryptocurrency as payment.
For Tesla to acknowledge Dogecoin definitely means a lot to the enthusiasts of the currency, further validating their belief in its great future. The only question is: How long will Elon Musk stick to accepting crypto as payment this time? While Dogecoin is mined on a much smaller scale than Bitcoin, it still has the same adverse impact on the environment — only to a smaller extent. While Dogecoin enthusiasts rejoice, the amount of backlash Tesla will receive for this choice remains to be seen.