Santa Floki coin surges over 18,000% in 2 days after Elon Musk’s tweet

A meme-coin named after tech billionaire Elon Muk’s dog surged more than 18,000% in value after the Tesla CEO posted a photo of his dog on Twitter. According to CoinMarketCap data, Santa Floki cryptocurrency – named in a Christmas-themed reference to Musk’s Shiba Inu canine, was up in total above 18,000% over the next 48 hours.

On December 25, Musk tweeted a photo of his dog wearing a Santa costume with the caption “Floki Santa.” However, Musk’s tweet did not indicate any reference to Santa Floki coin, but the Floki creators pounced on the opportunity to promote their coin.

“@elonmusk just tweeted about us, and we are humbled by this recognition!” they claimed on Twitter.

The post of Musk’s dog in Santa Claus apparel garnered over 306,600 likes. As a result, Santa Floki’s value surged from $0.0000000129 to $0.000001718 on Monday.

Later, the coin price skyrocketed the following day to a new all-time high of $0.00000245, according to CoinGecko. This represented a mindblowing 18,840% surge in roughly 48 hours.

Meanwhile, the creators of Santa Floki coin claim that the cryptocurrency, based on the philosophy that those who want to do good should come together and contribute to the less fortunate.

“We believe in the principles of sharing wealth through passive income and planning to donate to reputable charities such as Save The Children,” said in the cryptocurrency’s description on CoinMarketCap.

This is not the first time Musk’s tweet has raised speculation. Earlier, in October, Musk tweeted a photo of the Shiba Inu meme going to the Moon. At that time, the token was trading at $0.000026. However, his tweet pushed the coin to nearly 50% to reach a high of $0.000044, according to CoinMarketCap.

The tech billionaire is a staunch supporter of meme coins. A few weeks ago, Musk endorsed Dogecoin – a ‘meme’ cryptocurrency, over Ethereum, saying that DOGE can be used to make Decentralised Finance (DeFi) more accessible to everyone. Musk had once changed his Twitter bio to “Former CEO of Dogecoin.”

Dogecoin was created in 2013 by software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer as a faster but “fun” alternative to Bitcoin. It was started as a satire on the numerous fraud crypto coins that had sprung up at the time and took its name and logo from a Shiba Inu meme that was viral several years ago.

Seem Musk’s tweets, whether they are serious or goofy, always have some impact on the price of cryptocurrencies. However, while cryptocurrency becomes more mainstream, the market gradually calms. As Ethereum co-creator Vitalik Buterin predicts that the crypto market will develop an “immune system” against such social media impacts, jaded crypto investors hope that it will reduce the infamous volatility of the cryptocurrency market.