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Elon Musk’s Favorite Cryptocurrency Dogecoin Plunges After ‘SNL’ Mentions

Fears that Saturday Night Live guest host Elon Musk would use the platform to hype cryptocurrency Dogecoin proved largely unfounded.

This morning, the air has been let out of the Dogecoin balloon by speculators. The coin rose as high as 73 cents on some exchanges last night before plunging to around 48 cents as of this report, a drop of more than 26 percent.

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Dogecoin’s price started to fall at the 11:30 ET/8:30 PT start of SNL, and the plunge accelerating as the show ended.

While Musk did use Dogecoin as a foil through the show, it was mentioned mostly for comic effect. The one tout came in the “Weekend Update” segment, where “financial expert” Musk has trouble explaining exactly what the coin was to the baffled Michael Che and Colin Jost. Musk did give his trademarked shout “To the moon!” about the coin at the end of the segment, a phrase he’s used on social media to tout Dogecoin.

In his opening monologue, Musk himself did not mention the cryptocurrency by name. However, his mother, Maye, who joined him in a guest appearance for Mother’s Day, did say she hoped that his gift to her would not be Dogecoin. He replied with glee, “It is!”

Earlier this week, Musk tweeted a warning to his followers to be cautious about trading in cryptocurrency. His warning came after speculation intensified about what he might say on the program, talk fueled by Musk’s admission of being a “wild card.”

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