• Elon Musk said Tuesday that Tesla will begin accepting dogecoin as payment for some of its merchandise.
• Musk tweeted, "Tesla will make certain goods buyable with Doge and see how it goes."
• Following Musk's post, the meme cryptocurrency soared by as much as 30% early Tuesday.

Elon Musk has announced that the meme cryptocurrency dogecoin would be accepted as payment for some Tesla merchandise.

Musk tweeted Tuesday, "Tesla will make some stuff buyable with Doge and see how it goes."

Prior to Musk's revelation, the price of Dogecoin was declining, but it immediately soared by as much as 30%. It was recently up 26% at $0.2092, according to cryptocurrency statistics website Coinmarketcap.

The Tesla CEO has long been a backer of dogecoin, a cryptocurrency based on a Japanese Shiba Inu dog that was created as a joke in 2013.

Tesla should start taking dogecoin, he asked his Twitter followers in May, and the overwhelming response was "yes."

Musk claimed earlier this month that dogecoin could, ironically, become the future of cryptocurrencies.

Tesla would hardly be the first corporation to accept payment in meme tokens. Earlier this year, the Dallas Mavericks, a basketball team owned by crypto enthusiast Mark Cuban, began selling tickets and products in exchange for it.

In 2021, Musk and Tesla were key drivers of the cryptocurrency boom. In January, the electric-car manufacturer purchased $1.5 billion in bitcoin, and in March, it announced that it will begin accepting bitcoin as payment for cars.

Musk, on the other hand, rebuked that notion in May, calling bitcoin's energy consumption "insane." Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, such as dogecoin, are secured and "mined" with a large amount of computing power.

As he pulled away from bitcoin in May, Musk began to talk more about dogecoin, stating he was working with developers to increase its efficiency.

Musk has had a busy week, selling another $900 million in Tesla stock, bringing his total sales to just under $13 billion since early November.

He is the world's wealthiest man, and Time Magazine named him Person of the Year on Monday. Musk was described as a "clown, genius, edgelord, visionary, industrialist, showman, [and] cad" by the journal.

The rise in Dogecoin on Tuesday contrasted with the rest of the crypto industry, which was a sea of red. Most investors regard digital assets as highly speculative, and they have suffered as the Federal Reserve has discussed the possibility of tighter monetary policy.