Dogecoin may be sad today.
The most famous meme coin must be feeling very lonely after Elon Musk, its biggest supporter, embraces another trendy and buzz element in the crypto/metaverse/web3 galaxy.
The CEO of high-end electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla (TSLA) has just surprised the crypto world by changing his avatar on Twitter. This avatar or image of Musk's profile on the microblogging website on May 3 displayed a photo of him at the very popular Met Gala. But between the night of May 3 to the morning of May 4, the richest man in the world changed this picture again. Now it's a collage of Bored Ape, one of the most famous NFTs (non-fungible tokens).
The serial entrepreneur then posted a message clearly referring to NFTs, which are digital property titles.
"I dunno … seems kinda fungible," Musk said.
Bored Ape #5809
The new photo featuring Elon Musk on Twitter is now a montage of the famous apes known in the crypto sphere as the Bored Ape. In the center of the collage is a chimpanzee with golden hair wearing blue translucent glasses. This is Bored Ape #5809.
There's no indication that Musk owns this Bored Ape. The collage is the one that was used for the promotion of an auction of Bored Ape at the venerable auction house Sotheby's last September. Michael Bouhanna, VP, Contemporary Art Specialist & Co-Head of Digital Art at Sotheby’s, asked Musk to delete it or credit it.
"@elonmusk as much I admire your work I’d like you to remove your pfp that I created for our Sotheby’s sale," Bouhanna said of Musk's new avatar. "Or you credit me 😂. Happy to send you the original file minted with the buyer approval."
Musk's embrace of NFTs comes as a surprise as the billionaire criticized a Twitter decision in favor of NFTs in January. Twitter decided to allow users to display NFT profile pictures in a special hexagonal shape as long as they connect their crypto wallet to their social media profile.
Musk, who is taking advantage of this decision, did not mince his words as Tony Owusu wrote at the time for TheStreet.
"Twitter is spending engineering resources on this bs while crypto scammers are throwing a spambot block party in every thread!?" Musk blasted at the time.
Since then, Musk has made a $44 billion takeover bid for Twitter (TWTR).
ApeCoin Jumps
Reactions to Musk's embrace of NFTs and its most famous club were overwhelmingly positive as Musk's weight could reignite interest in NFTs. Indeed, after having been the buzzword of 2021 and the beginning of 2022, the NFT craze has fallen. The insane prices at which these digital titles were selling have completely melted.
"This is the way #BabyDoge," one Twitter user posted.
"Elon about to send @BoredApeYC to the moon," another added.
"elon,you need buy this one," another Twitter user posted.
While we wait to learn more about Musk's intentions with respect to Bored Ape -- does he care about this exclusive community? -- the billionaire's decision has had a positive effect on ApeCoin, the community's native token Bored Ape.
ApeCoin soared nearly 20% to $17.49 within minutes of the image appearing on Musk's profile. Prices have eased back to around $15.50 at the time of writing, according to Cointelegraph.
There are only about 10,000 apes in the collection and the minimum cost to purchase one is 93 ether, or about $265,952 as of time of writing. Celebrities like Paris Hilton, Jimmy Fallon, and Eminem all have their own special apes.
The attention drawn to Bored Ape and ApeCoin by Musk must make Dogecoin jealous. The prices of the meme coin were almost stable. Dogecoin is Musk's favorite coin, even usable to purchase merch from Tesla.
"Tesla merch buyable with Dogecoin," the billionaire said in January.
Dogecoin features the image of the Shiba Inu dog as its logo and namesake. It's considered the first of the so-called "meme coins," which are inspired by a meme or has some humorous characteristic.
It was created by software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer, who decided to create a payment system as a "joke," saying that the coin is making fun of the wild speculation in cryptocurrencies.
