Dogecoin sees value slash after Musk calls it a ‘hustle’

Starting as a joke, Dogecoin surged more than 16,000 percent the past year but was down 36 percent after Musk’s comment.

Dogecoin lost more than a third of its price on Sunday after Tesla chief and cryptocurrency supporter Elon Musk called it a “hustle” during his guest-host spot on the Saturday Night Live comedy sketch TV show. Dogecoin was quoted as low as $0.416 on crypto exchange Binance, down 36 percent from levels around $0.65 before the show. It retraced some of that move later on Sunday and was last trading around $0.569. The cryptocurrency, which started as a joke in 2013, has surged more than 16,000 percent in the past year, Bloomberg reported citing crypto data tracker CoinGecko.com. Musk has been among its biggest boosters, along with celebrities Mark Cuban, Snoop Dogg and Gene Simmons.