Litecoin (CRYPTO: LTC) creator Charlie Lee praised Elon Musk and the world’s first memecoin Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE) for their contributions to the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
What Happened: Lee said during a recent interview that Dogecoin — which he described as “great” and “pretty fun” — drove mainstream adoption of crypto.
Musk played a role in making cryptocurrencies “a mainstream topic,” Lee said, according to a Wednesday FXEmpire report.
Musk brought cryptocurrencies into the spotlight of mainstream media after he lead his electric car manufacturer Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) to accept Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) as means of payment for its cars in 2021 and then decided to stop accepting it over environmental concerns soon thereafter.
While he suggested that Tesla may start accepting Bitcoin again in the future, the company also acquired $1.5 billion in Bitcoin and sold $272 million of the cryptocurrency.
Musk is also arguably Dogecoin’s most notable fan; he frequently tweets about the coin and once even promoted it on Saturday Night Live. At the end of January, he tweeted at the official McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE:MCD) that he would eat a happy meal on TV if the fast-food chain were to start accepting Dogecoin. The company answered that it would only comply if Tesla accepts “grimacecoin” — a fake coin depicting the McDonaldland mascot Grimace.
Crypto scammers were quick to act and soon thereafter the crypto community saw the creation of Grimacecoin (CRYPTO: GRIMACE) on the Binance Smart Chain (CRYPTO: BNB), which then skyrocketed 285,000% in under 24 hours.