Elon Musk has rediscovered his love for Dogecoin (DOGE) in recent weeks. After the Twitter CEO temporarily made the Shiba Inu – the mascot of the meme coin – the logo for the social media platform, Musk is now causing a stir in the Dogecoin community with a new venture.
Musk has offered via Twitter a reward of 1 million DOGE, equivalent to about $83,500, to anyone who can prove that he owns an emerald mine. The move comes after Twitter account DogeDesigner (@cb_doge), popular in the Dogecoin community, claimed that Elon Musk never owned an emerald mine.
“An open offer of 69,420 DOGE to any media that publishes false information. Send me proof of its existence & take your DOGE,” wrote the influencer, with whom the billionaire has communicated extensively in recent weeks. Musk replied, “I will pay one million Dogecoin for proof that this mine exists!”
Elon Musk never owned an emerald mine. @elonmusk
An open offer of 69,420 Doge to all media that publish false information. Send me proof of its existence and take your doge. 🤣
📸 @dvorahfr pic.twitter.com/jx32wArKUP
— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) April 12, 2023
What is the background to the Dogecoin venture?
Media reports about Musk’s alleged ownership of the emerald mine date back to 2014. In a Forbes interview that year, Musk himself addressed the story.
Freelancer Jim Clash conducted an interview with Musk at the time, which was widely considered an oddity. He told the story of the emerald mine as a casual anecdote about his now-deceased father, Errol Musk.
“This is going to sound a little crazy, but my father also had a stake in an emerald mine in Zambia,” Musk mentioned, which was also revealed by YouTuber and podcaster Cody Johnston via Twitter in response to the bet.
You are the one discussing the mine. pic.twitter.com/KwfFFF3G1r
— Cody Johnston (@drmistercody) April 13, 2023
In January of this year, the topic came up again. Musk denied the existence of the mine, tweeting“The fake emerald mine is so annoying (sigh). Like where exactly is this thing!?”
Tech critic Paris Marx said at the time, “Musk and his family seem especially sensitive to shaping the narrative of their history lately, especially around the emerald mine. They act like they’ve never heard of it before, even though he bragged to Forbes about it 2014.”
Oddly enough, the interview in question is no longer on the Forbes website. Clash, the Forbes writer at the time, told Futurism in January that he did not know why the magazine removed the interview. “I interviewed Elon, he said what he said, and I don’t know why they would take it down.”
At press time, the Dogecoin price did not show much reaction to the new tweet by Elon Musk. DOGE was trading at $0.8411, up 2.1% in the last 24 hours.
Featured image from Fox Business. charts from TradingView.com
