Dogecoin rebounds 3% as Elon Musk backs down from feud with Trump

Dogecoin, a crypto memecoin that tends to fluctuate on Musk-related news, rebounded on Wednesday after tech billionaire Elon Musk backed down from an escalating feud with President Donald Trump. 

“I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week,” Musk posted on X early Wednesday morning. “They went too far.” 

Dogecoin popped 3% in the minutes that followed Musk’s apology, jumping from 19 cents to above 20 cents, according to Binance. The currency has pulled back slightly since the post but remains up 2%. By comparison, Bitcoin is up less than a tenth of a percent since the post. 

The price rebound comes after Dogecoin fell 11% to 17 cents last week, as Musk and Trump entered into a public feud on social media. The dispute between the world’s two most powerful people happened after Musk, who had concluded his time at the White House, took issue with the president’s spending bill, calling it “pork-filled” and a “disgusting abomination” in an X post on June 3. 

Trump fired back saying that the easiest way to mitigate government spending would be to “terminate Elon’s governmental subsidies and contracts” on Truth Social on June 5. 

In a since-deleted post, Musk responded by saying that his aerospace company SpaceX would begin “immediately decommissioning” its Dragon aircraft which shuttles people to and from the International Space Station. Musk walked back the statement later that day, but the two men continued to exchange barbs. 

The same day, Musk dropped what he called “a really big bomb,” claiming that Trump “is in the Epstein files,” in another since-deleted post on X. The “Epstein files” refers to documents the U.S. government collected during their investigation into sex offender Jeffrey Epstein that supposedly contained the names of his high-profile associates. Musk did not provide evidence to support his claims. 

Trump responded to Musk’s claims by posting a screenshot of Epstein’s former defense attorney David Shoen denying that Epstein had any information that would “hurt” the president. 

“I was hired to lead Jeffrey Epstein’s defense as his criminal lawyer for 9 days before he died,” Shoen wrote on X on June 5. “I can say authoritatively, unequivocally, and definitively that he has no information to hurt President Trump.”

Trump has also previously denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein. Last year, Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social: “I was never on Epstein’s Plane, or at his ‘stupid’ Island.”

Musk-related news has a history of influencing the price of Dogecoin, the crypto industry’s first and most popular memecoin. The Tesla founder has repeatedly expressed his affinity for the currency over the years, proclaiming himself “Doge father” on SNL in 2021 and titling a federal agency the Department of Government Efficiency, or D.O.G.E. 

Dogecoin isn’t the only Musk-affiliated enterprise that took a hit in value during his war of words with the sitting president. Tesla’s share price dropped around 17.3% after Musk began feuding with Trump. It has rebounded since then, but still remains below its previous price. 

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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