Dogecoin (DOGE) Drops 10% After Twitter Users Vote for Elon Musk to Step Down

Despite a recent drop in value over the past 24 hours due to Elon Musk, Dogecoin's (DOGE) market cap remains higher than that of Coinbase.

Update - December 21, 2022:

On the morning of December 21, Elon Musk officially addressed the results of the "trust" vote regarding his leadership of Twitter. Musk stated he is willing to step down as Twitter CEO and move to manage software/server operations, but only once a suitable replacement is found.

Elon Musk acquired Twitter at the end of October for $43 billion, taking full ownership of the platform. Since then, Musk has stirred controversy with sweeping changes, including charging users $8/month to address spam bots on Twitter and maintaining "free speech" on the platform. Many employees were laid off to cut costs.

Original Article:

On the morning of December 20, Dogecoin (DOGE) saw its value plummet by over 10% compared to 24 hours earlier, primarily due to Twitter users overwhelmingly supporting the proposal for Elon Musk to step down as CEO of the social media platform.

On December 19, Twitter implemented a new policy banning users from linking to other social media networks in their profiles. This update was met with significant backlash from Twitter users, who claimed it was a clear violation of free speech—a principle Musk had vowed to prioritize after acquiring Twitter.

In response to the criticism, Twitter reversed the change, and Musk promised to consult the community on major updates moving forward.

Notably, the interim Twitter CEO conducted a poll asking if he should resign, pledging to follow the majority's decision.

The vote concluded on the evening of December 19 with over 17.5 million votes, 57.5% of which supported Musk's resignation.

It is unclear what Musk's next move will be regarding Twitter, but it has already impacted Dogecoin's value. Dogecoin, often mentioned by Musk and known for its volatile reactions to his statements and actions, has been rumored to potentially be accepted for Twitter services.

On the morning of December 20, DOGE’s price briefly adjusted to $0.06997, down more than 10% from 24 hours prior. Compared to its peak of $0.15 on November 1—when Musk's acquisition of Twitter was officially confirmed—Dogecoin has halved in value.

4-Hour Chart of DOGE/USDT on Binance as of 8:40 AM on December 20, 2022

Despite this, Dogecoin still maintains a market cap of $9.5 billion, making it the 8th largest cryptocurrency. In comparison, Coinbase—the largest U.S. crypto exchange and the first to go public—closed its last trading day before the Christmas-New Year holiday with a market cap of only $7.98 billion. For context, Coinbase’s market cap was $64 billion when it went public in April 2021 and peaked at $77 billion in November 2021, along with the overall crypto market.

Some joke that if Coinbase’s market cap halves once more, crypto billionaires like Changpeng Zhao or Justin Sun might consider acquiring the entire platform.