Elon Musk wants to bring Dogecoin back to Tesla online store

Dogecoin, which Tesla CEO Elon Musk called his “favorite cryptocurrency” in 2019, could be making a comeback as a payment option on the electric vehicle maker’s website.

In January 2022, Tesla began accepting the meme token as a payment option for select products (i.e. apparel and accessories) on its online store.

At one point, Dogecoin (DOGE) mysteriously disappeared as a payment option, leading fans to question the possibility of bringing it back on X.com.

Musk, who owns X.com and the majority of Tesla shares, is interested in the issue.

“I am,” Musk wrote in response to an X user who asked if anyone wanted Tesla to “reinstate” the option to “bring back Dogecoin payment” for goods. See below.

Currently, the Tesla store only accepts credit cards as payment. It’s unclear when or why Dogecoin was removed as a payment option. The Austin, Texas-based company has not generally accepted Dogecoin for car payments, and there has been no official announcement about its “removal” as a payment option.

Musk the environmentalist?

Tesla’s crypto payment policy is particularly confusing, as Musk posted in 2021 that the company planned to “use crypto.” [Bitcoin] “As soon as mining becomes more sustainable energy for operations.”

See below.

Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Dogecoin require significant amounts of electricity to process transactions and ensure that the networks involved remain secure.

Environmentalists and investors have pointed out that the carbon footprint associated with cryptocurrency transactions contradicts Tesla’s clean energy initiatives.

It’s also worth noting that Musk is a staunch supporter of former President and current Republican nominee Donald Trump, who has vowed to roll back clean energy initiatives if re-elected.

Legal drama

Musk’s support for Dogecoin comes less than 24 hours after U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein dismissed a federal lawsuit accusing the Tesla CEO of defrauding investors through insider trading and market manipulation of Dogecoin.

The lawsuit alleges that Musk abused his position as the world’s richest man to inflate the price of Dogecoin by more than “36,000 percent” and then allow the price to fall, causing losses to investors.

The plaintiffs argued that Musk’s actions could be justified as a “Dogecoin Pyramid Scheme” in which he promoted the cryptocurrency to profit from the volatility it allegedly created.

The price of DOGE once reached an all-time high of $0.73 but has never reached that price level again.

Hellerstein said the statements made about Dogecoin were “unsubstantiated, pretentious and exaggerated” and “no reasonable investor could rely on them when making investment decisions.”

The judge also found that there was no evidence to support the plaintiffs’ allegations of a “pump and dump” scheme, market manipulation and insider trading, stressing that “it was impossible to understand the allegations underlying” those claims.

It remains to be seen whether the dismissal of the Dogecoin lawsuit bodes well for Tesla fans to once again use the dog-themed coin as a payment option when purchasing a Cybertruck T-shirt, for example.