Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter and a big supporter of Dogecoin, the original meme coin, is stepping down as the CEO of the social media platform to focus on product development. He will act as the chief technology officer (CTO) of Twitter.
Elon Musk Stepping Down As Twitter CEO
In a Tweet on late May 11, the technology billionaire said Twitter has since hired a CEO whom she will take over in six weeks.
Excited to announce that I’ve hired a new CEO for X/Twitter. She will be starting in ~6 weeks!
My role will transition to being exec chair & CTO, overseeing product, software & sysops.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 11, 2023
Meanwhile, DOGE, like the rest of the crypto market, is down 32% from its April 2023 peak and likely to slide even lower following this announcement.
Musk is an ardent supporter of cryptocurrencies and has specifically expressed his admiration for DOGE, the meme token. In numerous instances, DOGE prices have rallied following comments from Musk, mostly posted on Twitter.
Like most meme coins, some argue that DOGE has no fundamental value, with supporters keen on riding the coin’s bullish and bearish cycles. During the last bull cycle, DOGE rallied to over $0.70, peaking when Elon Musk appeared on Saturday Night Live (SNL) show saying he was the “Doge master.”
Over the past few months, DOGE has crashed by over 85%, slumping to $0.05 in Q4 2022. However, this didn’t prevent Elon Musk from tweeting about the project.
In April, DOGE prices rocketed when Twitter, the company Musk presently leads, temporarily changed its logo to the Shiba Inu dog associated with the meme project.
In response, DOGE spiked, adding as much as $4 billion, surging from around $0.07 to $0.10. Musk said he delivered on his promise by temporarily replacing the blue bird logo representing Twitter with Shiba Inu.
As promised pic.twitter.com/Jc1TnAqxAV
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 3, 2023
Sued For Supporting Dogecoin
Last month, the billionaire asked a United States court to dismiss the $258 billion racketeering lawsuit. In the case, Musk is accused of running a scheme to support DOGE.
An extract from the lawsuit reads:
Defendants were aware since 2019 that Dogecoin had no value yet promoted Dogecoin to profit from its trading. Musk used his pedestal as World’s richest man to operate and manipulate the Dogecoin Pyramid Scheme for profit, exposure, and amusement.
How DOGE reacts in the days ahead is yet to be seen, with Elon Musk stepping down as the CEO of Twitter.