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Elon Musk explains Dogecoin on SNL: Is it 'the future' or 'a hustle'?

Nathan Bomey, USA TODAY
·2 min read

If you were looking for insights on whether Dogecoin is a legitimate investment or totally worthless, you might still be puzzled after Elon Musk's appearance on "Saturday Night Live."

The billionaire Tesla CEO, SpaceX entrepreneur and cryptocurrency proponent played the role of "financial expert" "Lloyd Ostertag" in a sketch during his hosting gig on SNL on May 8.

The premise of the "Weekend Update" sketch was to explain Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency created in 2013 as a joke that has recently taken off in value after Musk began promoting it on Twitter.

The hosts of "Weekend Update," Michael Che and Colin Jost, repeatedly pressed Musk's character to explain the perplexing nature of Dogecoin.

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"It's the future of currency," Musk responded once. "It's an unstoppable financial vehicle that's going to take over the world."

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Pressed again, he said, "I keep telling you, it's a cryptocurrency you can trade for conventional money."

"Oh, so it's a hustle?" Che replied.

"Yeah, it's a hustle," Musk joked.

"To the moon!" he said as the segment wrapped up.

As he was hosting the show, Dogecoin briefly slumped nearly 30%. Analysts say it was likely a “buy the rumor, sell the news” strategy, an old market adage based on the belief that the price of an asset may rise as speculators buy it amid rumors of an event, then stagnate or fall when investors sell that asset to make a profit after an event.

To be sure, Dogecoin is still up more than 10,000% in 2021, rising from less than half a penny to more than 50 cents. The surge in recent months has pushed Dogecoin’s market value to $70 billion, which means it’s worth more than Moderna, Ford and Twitter.

Earlier in the week, Musk added a note of caution to his recent tweets promoting Dogecoin.

"Cryptocurrency is promising, but please invest with caution!" he wrote on Twitter.

Contributing: Jessica Menton

You can follow USA TODAY reporter Nathan Bomey on Twitter @NathanBomey and subscribe to our free Daily Money newsletter here for personal finance tips and business news every Monday through Friday morning.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Dogecoin drops with Elon Musk on SNL: 'The future' or 'a hustle'?