Key takeaways:
- Twitter has agreed to tech billionaire Elon Musk’s cash offer of $54.2 per share
- Musk intends to take the social media giant private and promote free speech
- Dogecoin gained over 30% on the news amidst speculation of a potential Twitter integration
Twitter’s board agrees to Musk’s $44 billion offer
Twitter (TWTR) has agreed to Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s offer to acquire the social media giant and turn it into a private company. Per Monday’s press release, Musk will pay $54.2 in cash for each share of Twitter stock, which represents a massive 38% premium compared to Twitter stock’s value on April 1, 2022.
Musk, who is himself an avid Twitter user with 84 million followers on the platform, repeatedly expressed in recent weeks that he is buying the social media giant to promote free speech. The tech billionaire reiterated his stance on Monday.
Musk added that “Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” and wrote that he wants to improve the platform with new features, open-source algorithms, and removal of the spam bots.
Dogecoin jumps more than 30% on the news
Cryptocurrency investors flocked to Dogecoin (DOGE) in the hours since the acquisition deal has been finalized, facilitating $9.5 billion in trading volume in the last 24 hours. Only Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tether have had a higher trading volume in the same time period. While no official announcement has been made, Musk did float the idea of his favorite crypto being used for Twitter’s Blue premium service earlier in the month, which could be one of the catalysts for the rally.
At press time, DOGE hit its monthly high of $0.1622 on the tailwind of over a 30% 24-hour upswing. Thanks to the big price increase, DOGE surpassed Avalanche (AVAX) to become the 10th largest crypto by market capitalization. With a circulating supply of over 132 billion tokens, DOGE’s market cap currently stands at $21.5 billion.
It is worth noting that Twitter has integrated several crypto-focused features in the last year, including NFT profile image verification tools, Lighting Network-facilitated Bitcoin tips, and support for Ethereum tipping functionality.
