Floki: Elon Musk Tweets Name Of New Dog Sending Cryptocurrency Skyrocketing

Meme master Elon Musk has finally chosen a name for his new dog. Bright and early Friday morning, the serial entrepreneur revealed he plans on naming his new Shibu Inu dog Floki. Naturally, the seven-word tweet sent the cryptocurrency market soaring, with two coins in particular receiving a substantial bump after the announcement.

In addition to Dogecoin, two other cryptocurrencies have received a bump after Musk's twilight tweet on Friday. Hours after the tweet, $SHIB — the symbol for digital coin Shiba Inu — rose 25-percent in pricing, trading around $0.00000827 per coin. $FLOKI — a digital coin named after a character in History Channel's Vikings series — got a 3,500-percent bump.

Musk has long supported "meme cryptos" like the two aforementioned tokens and Dogecoin. Many attribute the entrepreneur for leading a charge with Doge, taking the coin from a meme, and helping raise its price to around $0.70 per coin earlier this year. $DOGE peaked right around the entrepreneur's appearance on Saturday Night Live in May and has been in a free-fall ever since.

My Shiba Inu will be named Floki

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 25, 2021

As of this writing, #DOGE is trading for $0.25 per coin. Musk has been such a big supporter of $DOGE, the Musk-run SpaceX has even taken an order for a satellite launch that was paid for entirely with the crypto.

"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 in a press release in May.

"This mission will demonstrate the application of cryptocurrency beyond Earth orbit and set the foundation for interplanetary commerce," added SpaceX Vice President of Commercial Sales Tom Ochinero. "We're excited to launch DOGE-1 to the Moon!"

The big Dogecoin moment for SpaceX came days after Musk went viral for his comments about Mars, suggesting "a bunch of people" will likely day in the first trips to the Red Planet.

"[Going to Mars] is dangerous and uncomfortable. It's a long journey and you might not come back alive, but it's a glorious adventure and it will be an amazing experience," Musk told XPRIZE executive Peter Diamandis during a live stream in April.

"If an arduous and dangerous journey where you may not come back alive — but is a glorious adventure and sounds appealing — Mars is the place," he added. "Honestly, a bunch of people will probably die in the beginning. It's tough sledding over there. We don't want to make anyone go, it's volunteers only."

Cover photo by Christophe Gateau/picture alliance via Getty Images