Dogecoin Rallies Ahead of Elon Musk's Highly Controversial SNL Appearance

Dogecoin, the cryptocurrency token that was named after a vintage internet meme, has been lighting up the markets over the last few weeks, and its unlikely rally has a lot to do with the founder and CEO of Tesla Motors, whose scheduled appearance as host of Saturday Night Live was celebrated by digital currency traders.

As of this writing, the value of the cryptocurrency has risen above $0.65 per coin on numerous exchanges, and now sits at almost $0.64 per coin on BTC-e and over $0.66 on CoinMarketCap. Traders were keeping a close eye on the markets at the same time SNL was broadcasting; the reason why they are following Elon Musk so closely was because there was speculation about whether he would mention DOGE at some point during his appearance. Musk has been strongly influential not only on DOGE but also on Bitcoin and the overall cryptocurrency market.

It's important to note that DOGE is a token that has gained momentum purely on its own merits of being as playful as it is useful. DOGE is the preferred digital currency of the Reddit social network, and this status has helped it achieve circulation on a level that Bitcoin enthusiasts would love to see.

Musk has the power to shift market sentiment on just about any token he chooses to write about on his popular Twitter account. Many of his most ardent followers have been asking him to fund a blockchain project or launch his own token, and he has reportedly considered doing so. The tech billionaire founded X.com as a digital payments system that could compete against retail banks; he has held onto the domain name after the company morphed into PayPal, and he has been advised to revive it as a holding company in the style of Alphabet, the parent enterprise of Google.

The rumors surrounding X.com involved the minting of X-coin, a token that would base its value on the performance of Tesla and SpaceX stock; moreover, the hearsay also insinuates that Musk would seek to take control of DOGE in order to launch the X token, but this would not be possible because of the decentralized nature of this digital currency.