The cryptocurrency Dogecoin was created as a joke in 2013, and as of this January, it was worth less than a penny per coin. By the end of the month, it had hit 5 cents, and in May, it reached a new high of 74 cents. This meteoric rise uncoincidentally coincided with Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk repeatedly talking about the cryptocurrency on his Twitter account, and its value peaked just days before Musk was set to host SNL for the very first time.
By the time the episode was over, dogecoin’s value had tanked, as many owners likely cashed out. The coin’s value is so volatile that it’s hard to predict what will happen next, but it’s clear that the billionaire’s interest has yet to abate, as CNN reports that SpaceX will accept dogecoin as a form of payment for an upcoming mission.
Canada’s Geometric Energy Corporation announced in a press release on Monday that it will launch a commercial lunar payload on one of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets in the first quarter of 2022, and it plans to pay for its spot aboard the rocket entirely with dogecoin. The 88-pound satellite that the company is putting on the rocket will appropriately be called DOGE-1, and once the rocket launches, DOGE-1 “will obtain lunar-spatial intelligence from sensors and cameras on-board with integrated communications and computational systems.”
“This is not a joke,” Geometric Energy Corporation CEO Samuel Reid told CNN of the deal.
The press release from Geometric Energy Corporation goes on to explain the significance of the mission:
Indeed, through this very transaction, DOGE has proven to be a fast, reliable, and cryptographically secure digital currency that operates when traditional banks cannot and is sophisticated enough to finance a commercial Moon mission in full. It has been chosen as the unit of account for all lunar business between SpaceX and Geometric Energy Corporation and sets precedent for future missions to the Moon and Mars.
Dogecoin has been hovering around 50 cents since Musk’s Saturday Night Live appearance, but the fact that it still hasn’t dropped further seems to suggest that plenty of owners have held on to their coins. Dogecoin is still up more than 10,000% compared to last May, and its market cap is sitting around $65 billion.
As CNN notes, Geometric Energy Corporation was founded in 2015, and mainly focuses on intellectual property, manufacturing, and logistics. Its focus has expanded over the years to include energy, space, software, and medicine, which led to the development of four subsidiaries: Geometric Space, GeometricLabs, Geometric Medical, and Geometric Gaming. Geometric Space is the group that will be working with SpaceX on this mission.
Do you want Tesla to accept Doge?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 11, 2021
In related news, Tesla recently began accepting bitcoin as a form of payment for its cars, and on Tuesday, Elon Musk asked his followers in a tweet if the company should accept dogecoin as well. “Yes” is winning.
