According to CoinDesk, the meme coins dogecoin and shiba inu experienced a surge on Friday following a tweet by Elon Musk about the death of Kabosu, the dog that inspired these tokens. Dogecoin saw a rise of up to 5% to a session high of 17.3 cents within minutes of the tweet, while shiba inu jumped nearly 3% during the same period. However, these gains were temporary as both cryptocurrencies reduced their gains. Despite this, dogecoin was up 6% and shiba inu gained 1% over the past 24 hours, outperforming the mostly flat broad-market CoinDesk 20 Index.
This event highlights the influence Musk has on the memecoin market, with many cryptocurrency enthusiasts speculating that he could be one of the largest dogecoin holders and might integrate the token into an X payment system. Kabosu, the face of dogecoin and several other meme tokens, passed away early Friday, as reported by her owner in a blog post. The dog was over 17 years old.