Dogecoin value jumps 20% on Elon Musk's announcement of accepting it as payment for Tesla merchs

Dogecoin was started as a meme-inspired crypto token by Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer in 2013 (Representative image)

Meme-based cryptocurrency dogecoin witnessed a massive 20 percent spurt in its value on December 14, after Tesla CEO Elon Musk said it will be accepted as payment for some of the company's merchandise.

One unit of dogecoin was trading at $0.19 at the time of writing this report. The value had jumped by nearly $0.032 or 20.45 percent as compared to the preceding day.

Crypto analysts were quick to link the jump in dogecoin's price to Musk's tweet, which stated: "Tesla will make some merch buyable with Doge & see how it goes (sic)".

Musk's tweet suggested that the electric carmaker will accept dogecoin as payment for merchandise on a test basis.

Notably, Musk is known for influencing the value of dogecoin through his remarks on social media. His tweets on the cryptocurrency in the past, including the one where he called it the "people's crypto", have helped the meme coin soar 5,859 percent over the past year, according to data from Coinbase website.

Musk did not specify what merchandise, which starts from $50 and goes as high as $1,900, could be bought with dogecoin.

Tesla sells apparel, 'Giga Texas' belt buckles and mini models of its vehicles as well as quirky limited-edition items such as the 'Cyberwhistle', which is modeled after its much-awaited Cybertruck. It recently launched a quad bike 'Cyberquad' for kids, also modeled after the truck.

Musk, a cryptocurrency supporter, has often endorsed dogecoin and said it is better for transactions, most recently in an interview to the Time magazine, which named him "Person of the Year" for 2021 on Monday.

"Bitcoin is not a good substitute for transactional currency," he said.

Musk had asked users in May if they wanted Tesla to accept dogecoin in a Twitter poll. He had called dogecoin a 'hustle' during his guest-host spot on the "Saturday Night Live" comedy sketch TV show in May.

Musk, who has over 66 million followers on Twitter, has been highly engaged in this year's retail trading frenzy, tweeting about cryptocurrencies and helping send their prices soaring.

The EV maker stopped accepting bitcoin for car purchases, less than two months after the company began to accept the world's biggest digital currency for payment.

(With Reuters inputs)