DOGE, SHIB Spike After Elon Musk Tweet About Mascot Dog's Passing

Popular canine-themed meme coins dogecoin (DOGE) and shiba inu (SHIB) spiked Friday after Elon Musk tweeted about the passing of Kabosu, the dog that inspired the tokens.

DOGE surged as much as 5% to a session high of 17.3 cents within minutes after the post, while SHIB jumped nearly 3% during the same period. However, the advances proved to be short-lived as both cryptos pared gains. Still, DOGE was up 6% and SHIB gained 1% over the past 24 hours, outperforming the mostly flat broad-market CoinDesk 20 Index.

The action underscores the market-moving sway Musk possesses over memecoins, with many crypto enthusiasts speculating on the possibility of him being behind one of the largest dogecoin holders and potentially integrating the token into an X payment system.

Kabosu, the face of dogecoin and several other meme tokens, died early Friday, her owner wrote in a blog post. She was over 17 years old.