Dogecoin price moves before Elon Musk appears on SNL

The price of Dogecoin has dropped as Elon Musk’s appearance on Saturday Night Live approaches.

Many had suggested that the show could serve as a catalyst for an increase in the price. That seemed particularly likely when Mr Musk appeared to link his interest in the cryptocurrency to his appearance on the show, tweeting the date of his guest hosting spot and calling himself the “Dogefather”.

But the appearance also came after the Tesla and SpaceX boss urged people to exercise “caution” when investing in cryptocurrencies.

“Cryptocurrency is promising, but please invest with caution!” he wrote in a tweet, as well as linking out to a video from February in which he gave similar warnings.

Perhaps as a result of that new mood of concern, Dogecoin’s value dropped in the hours ahead of Mr Musk’s SNL appearance. Just a couple of hours before it was due to begin, the cryptocurrency was down by 3.8 per cent when compared to 24 hours before.

In all, Dogecoin has gained almost 14,000 per cent over the last year. It has rapidly gone from a cryptocurrency created largely as a joke to outstripping the growth of bitcoin by 100 times in 2021.

That was amid a buoyant cryptocurrency market. Both bitcoin and ethereum were up over the last day, with the latter having gained almost 10 per cent.

The recent drop in the price of Dogecoin was far from enough to erase the substantial gains it has made in recent weeks and days. It is still up 68 per cent over the last week.