(Paris) The price of dogecoin soars on Tuesday, after Elon Musk, owner of Twitter, chose as a new logo of the social network a dog associated with this cryptocurrency, while the billionaire was sued for the promotion of this token digital.

This decision by Elon Musk to replace the historic blue bird as Twitter’s logo, whether permanent or a short-lived joke, sent dogecoin up from $0.08 to over $0.10, an increase of more than 20%.

The owner of Twitter, which has 133 million followers, has long used the platform for self-promotion and humor, sometimes in favor of dogecoin, a highly volatile cryptocurrency originally created as a joke.

Launched in 2013, it was a tongue-in-cheek response to two web phenomena: cryptocurrencies, which were proliferating in the wake of bitcoin, and photo montages of a Shiba Inu dog that were popular on the internet.

Boosted by a certain buying frenzy around improbable values ​​at the start of 2021, as well as by Elon Musk’s multiple positive messages on Twitter, dogecoin had soared to more than 70 cents in May 2021. Before starting to back down shortly after a satirical show aired in which the billionaire called virtual currency a “scam” in a sketch.

An investor who lost money betting on dogecoin filed a lawsuit in June 2022 seeking $258 billion from Elon Musk and his companies Tesla and SpaceX, but the billionaire denied the claims.

Twitter’s logo change prompted a slew of posts featuring the dog, including from Elon Musk himself, who posted a conversation with a user on the social network from last year. in which he promised to buy Twitter and make the Shiba Inu his logo.