In October 2021, Elon Musk gave Dogecoin one of its most enduring nicknames. Explaining why he backed the meme coin, the Tesla and SpaceX chief said his support came down to one thing, he con
In October 2021, Elon Musk gave Dogecoin one of its most enduring nicknames. Explaining why he backed the meme coin, the Tesla and SpaceX chief said his support came down to one thing, he considered it "the people's crypto."
Nearly five years on, the math tells a harsher story for anyone who bought in on the strength of that endorsement.
Musk made the remark on October 24, 2021, responding to a post citing a report that roughly a third of U.S. crypto holders owned Dogecoin.
He said in a post on X that many of his employees on Tesla's production lines and at SpaceX owned the coin, and that they weren't financial experts or Silicon Valley insiders, which, he reasoned, made Dogecoin "the people's crypto."
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In another X exchange, Musk said the only cryptocurrencies he personally held were Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin. That day, DOGE closed at $0.2647 on October 25, 2021, according to the data from Yahoo Finance.
A $1,000 bet placed at that price would have bought about 3,778 DOGE. With Dogecoin trading near $0.09 as of Sept 8, 2026, that stake is now worth roughly $341, a loss of about 66%, or nearly $660 on the original outlay.
The entry point was punishing: had the same $1,000 gone in at Dogecoin's May 2021 peak, it would be worth only about $122 today, as per the Coinbase data.
Musk's comment came months after Dogecoin's all-time high of $0.7376, set on May 8, 2021 (Coinbase). The coin briefly rebounded toward $0.48 in late 2024 before sliding back under $0.10, and now sits about 88% below its record.
According to report, over the past year, DOGE has ranged between roughly $0.068 and $0.31, and it remains the 11th-largest cryptocurrency, worth about $14 billion.
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