Steve Nesius/Reuters
- SpaceX has accepted dogecoin as payment for taking a satellite to the Moon in 2022.
- Geometric Energy Corporation is collaborating with Elon Musk’s company on the DOGE-1 Mission.
- Dogecoin was started as a joke in 2013, but has captured the imagination of many crypto fans.
- Sign up here for our daily newsletter, 10 Things Before the Opening Bell.
SpaceX is launching a mission to the moon in 2022, and has accepted meme cryptocurrency dogecoin as payment to take a payload on the journey.
Geometric Energy Corp, an intellectual property, manufacturing and logistics firm, said on Sunday it had paid Elon Musk’s space company in dogecoin to take a kind of mini space-exploration satellite on the mission.
The mission will be called “DOGE-1 to the Moon”. Geometric Space Corp will collaborate with SpaceX to launch a 40kg satellite on a Falcon 9 rocket in the first quarter of 2022.
Musk tweeted: “SpaceX launching satellite Doge-1 to the moon next year. Mission paid for in Doge. 1st crypto in space. 1st meme in space. To the mooooonnn!!”
Dogecoin – a cryptocurrency started as a joke in 2013 – has shot to prominence in recent weeks after a breakneck rally.
The token is up more than 20,000% over the last year, according to CoinGecko, despite falling sharply at the weekend. It has been boosted by Musk and other celebrities and has captured the imagination of cryptocurrency enthusiasts.
Analysts said a key driver of the red-hot rally in recent days was Musk’s upcoming performance on “Saturday Night Live.” Many commentators said he could further drive up dogecoin by singing its praises on national TV.
Yet Musk ended up jokingly calling it a “hustle”, causing the token to tumble to a low of $0.43235, more than 25% off recent highs.
Geometric did not reveal in its statement how much dogecoin it had paid SpaceX as part of the deal.
“Having officially transacted with DOGE for a deal of this magnitude, Geometric Energy Corporation and SpaceX have solidified DOGE as a unit of account for lunar business in the space sector,” Geometric Energy’s chief executive officer Samuel Reid said.
Many regulators have warned cryptocurrencies are highly risky and could plummet to zero. But many analysts have made even stronger warnings about dogecoin, saying the joke token has no use cases and is pure speculation.
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