American entrepreneur Elon Musk triggered a short-term rally in the memecoin market after posting a playful message on his social media platform X.
On Monday, Musk shared a post saying that Floki, his pet Shiba Inu dog, is “back on the job” as the CEO of X. The post was accompanied by an AI-generated video of his dog sitting at a desk, donning a tie and glasses, saying “Numbers, numbers, numbers, numbers? Is this working? Yay.”
CoinGecko data showed that on Monday, the Floki (FLOKI) memecoin’s price bounced from a low of $0.00006572 to a high of $0.00008469 after Musk’s post, a 28.8% increase. At the time of writing, the asset had corrected to $0.00007998.
The spike shows the influence Musk still wields over speculative crypto assets, especially memecoins, which mostly follow hype.
Musk’s History in the Memecoin Sector
This is not the first time Musk has been linked to price spikes in the memecoin space, with the most famous example being Musk’s link to the Dogecoin (DOGE) cryptocurrency.
Through the years, Musk has posted tweets, changed logos, and made playful remarks that led to DOGE price pumps.
A 2022 class-action lawsuit against Musk accused him of manipulating the price of DOGE through media appearances and social media posts.
The plaintiffs withdrew the lawsuit on Nov. 14, 2024.
Memecoin Sector Weathers Recent Market Crashes
Memecoins are one of the crypto sectors hit by the recent marketwide crypto crashes on Oct. 10 and Oct. 17.
CoinMarketCap data showed that on Oct. 11, the memecoin market lost nearly 40% of its valuation, dipping from $72 billion to $44 billion during a crypto market crash.
This puts the memecoin sector back to levels seen in July, erasing gains it recorded in the last three months.
While memecoins showed signs of recovery after the crash, another drop was felt on Oct. 17, with memecoin assets declining from 9%–11% during the day.
This happened as the “fear” sentiment gripped the markets, when nearly $230 billion in value was erased in a single day.