Tesla starts selling things for Dogecoin

The Tesla Model 3 was expected to be one of the most sought-after cars this year (PA) (PA Archive)

Tesla is now selling merchandise in exchange for dogecoin.

Chief executive Elon Musk announced that the company would start taking the cryptocurrency – which began as a joke, but has since received public support from a number of advocates – in exchange for a variety of items.

“Tesla merch buyable with Dogecoin,” Mr Musk tweeted.

That includes a belt buckle themed around its Texas plant, and a whistle. In the UK, customers can buy a mug that reads “S3XY”, a reference to the four single-letter names of each of its vehicles.

The excitement around the announcement meant that the value of dogecoin shot up 16 per cent, and so the price of the items in dollars increased accordingly.

The belt buckle, for instance, costs 835 doge. That is roughly $170, though that is likely to go up and down given the fluctuations in the price of Dogecoin.

Tesla’s support for cryptocurrency has proven controversial in the past. Last year, Mr Musk announced that it would start selling cars for bitcoin – about 50 days later, it postponed the option, amid criticism over the environmental impact of the digital currency.

Dogecoin, in part because of its lower value compared with bitcoin, is cleaner to conduct transactions with. Mr Musk has also said that he is working with the developers behind the cryptocurrency to make it more efficient.

But he is yet to commit to allowing cars to be bought with Dogecoin, or to bringing back the option to pay in bitcoin. After he announced that the Dogecoin option was on its way last month, Mr Musk said the company would “see how it goes”.

Mr Musk is perhaps the most famous supporter of dogecoin, which began as a joke to mock the vast number of different cryptocurrencies and then became one of the market’s most popular coins. He has described it as “the people’s crypto” and has committed to working with SpaceX to “put a literal Dogecoin on the literal moon”.