Dogecoin Fans React to SpaceX Accepting Crypto As Payment for Doge-1 Moon Mission

Fans of the cryptocurrency Dogecoin have expressed their delight after Elon Musk announced his rocket company SpaceX will launch a satellite called Doge-1 to the moon.

The U.S. billionaire also said the mission, of the same name, will be funded by Dogecoin. He suggested it would involve sending the cryptocurrency itself into space.

Musk’s tweet announcing the news received 100,000 retweets within around seven hours of being posted.

SpaceX launching satellite Doge-1 to the moon next year

– Mission paid for in Doge
– 1st crypto in space
– 1st meme in space

To the mooooonnn!!https://t.co/xXfjGZVeUW

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 9, 2021

The Dogecoin community on Reddit responded quickly to the news, with forum posts attracting hundreds of comments. One read: “I think Elon might be taking this ‘to the moon’ way too literally.”

Another wrote: “Is this real? Wow! This is amazing. Maybe the Mars space colony will also use doge as [an] official coin.”

And referencing Dogecoin’s weekend price crash, one user said: “Nice of him to tweet out something in our time of need.”

Dogecoin had plummeted in value over the weekend after Musk—widely seen as influential to Dogecoin’s success—hosted the comedy sketch show Saturday Night Live. Fans had hoped the price would instead soar, but cryptocurrency is infamously volatile.

The Doge-1 mission itself will be managed by Geometric Energy Corporation, a Canadian technology company.

In a statement, the company said the mission will involve a cube-shaped satellite weighing around 88 pounds. This satellite will then use sensors and cameras to “obtain lunar-spatial intelligence.”

The firm also said Dogecoin would be “the unit of account” between SpaceX and itself for business involving the moon.

Samuel Reid, CEO of Geometric Energy Corporation, said: “Having officially transacted with DOGE for a deal of this magnitude, Geometric Energy Corporation and SpaceX have solidified DOGE as a unit of account for lunar business in the space sector.”

Additional payload space on the mission will be set aside to include “space plaques” on which digital art will be stored, according to a press release.

Dogecoin is currently up 2.8 percent over the past 24 hours after crashing around 36 percent over the weekend.

Fans of the coin had been hyping up Musk’s appearance on SNL, amid speculation his support of the token on TV could cause its price to increase.

But instead, the opposite happened. The cryptocurrency was referenced a number of times during the show, but by Sunday morning its price had fallen as low as $0.45, according to price tracking site Coindesk, from around $0.66 before the show.

It was not the first time that Dogecoin failed to rally in price when fans hoped it would. Prior to the SNL episode, the Dogecoin community had been posting about pushing the token’s price up on April 20, dubbed “Dogeday.” On that occasion, again, the token’s price sharply fell.

Experts have previously warned Newsweek about the risks associated with investing in cryptocurrency, including price volatility.