Elon Musk buys Dogecoin for his son 'lil X'

Tesla boss Elon Musk, who has been very vocal about his preferences for cryptocurrencies, tweets that he has recently bought Dogecoin for his son X Æ A-Xii, extending his support to the cryptocurrency.

Posting a picture of the newborn, later he took to Twitter to say: Bought some Dogecoin for lil X, so he can be a toddler holder.

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Dogecoin, the tongue-in-cheek cryptocurrency featuring a Shiba Inu dog as a mascot, recently came into the limelight after Elon Musk and other celebrities started talking about it.

In fact, the cryptocurrency briefly touched a record on Monday after billionaire Elon Musk, rapper Snoop Dogg and Kiss bassist Gene Simmons tweeted about it.

The token climbed to a peak of about 8.2 US cents and a market capitalization of $10.5 billion during Asian trading hours Monday before pulling back, according to pricing data from CoinGecko. The coin was ranked among the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market value, the figures showed.

Musk, who has 45.2 million followers on Twitter, has been highly engaged in the recent retail trading frenzy, tweeting about specific companies and cryptocurrencies and helping send their prices soaring. He last week tweeted "Doge" after a picture of a rocket going to the moon. He then tweeted "Dogecoin is the people's crypto".

The Tesla chief had also posted an edited image of himself with the Shiba Inu dog at the centre of the doge meme, also the logo for the cryptocurrency.

Recently, he added "#bitcoin" to his Twitter bio, sending the largest cryptocurrency flying. He has since taken the tag off.

Dogecoin was created largely as a satirical critique of the 2013 crypto frenzy, but can still be bought and sold on digital currency exchanges.

It regularly makes a comeback during viral crypto rallies, with individuals promoting it on social media.

Dogecoin’s surprising social media-fueled rally is just one instance of the revival in cryptocurrencies over the past year. The two biggest tokens, Bitcoin and Ether, both scaled fresh peaks in recent weeks amid a debate about whether they’re blipping onto the radar of long-term investors or being lifted by waves of speculative buying in a world awash with stimulus.

(With inputs from agencies)