Elon Musk’s Post Sends FLOKI Soaring
American entrepreneur Elon Musk triggered a sharp rally in the memecoin market after sharing a humorous post on X featuring his Shiba Inu dog, Floki.
On Monday, Musk posted that Floki was “back on the job” as the CEO of X, accompanied by an AI-generated video showing the dog sitting at a desk wearing a tie and glasses, saying, “Numbers, numbers, numbers, numbers? Is this working? Yay.”
CoinGecko data showed that FLOKI jumped from $0.00006572 to $0.00008469 after Musk’s post, marking a 28.8% rise. The token later corrected to around $0.00007998. The move highlighted Musk’s ongoing influence over speculative crypto assets, particularly memecoins that often react to social media hype.
Musk’s Influence on Memecoins
Over the years, Musk has repeatedly impacted memecoin prices through tweets and playful gestures, including changes to platform logos and meme references.
In 2022, Musk faced a class-action lawsuit alleging that he manipulated the price of Dogecoin through public comments and social media activity. However, the plaintiffs dropped the lawsuit on Nov. 14, 2024.
Memecoins Struggle Amid Market Turbulence
Despite the recent surge, memecoins remain volatile. According to CoinMarketCap, the sector lost nearly 40% of its total value on Oct. 11, dropping from $72 billion to $44 billion during a broad crypto sell-off.
Although memecoins partially recovered afterward, another downturn hit the market on Friday, with assets in the sector losing between 9% and 11% in a single day as fear sentiment deepened. Roughly $230 billion in value was wiped from the crypto market overall.
