Floki Inu, which was inspired by Musk’s Shiba Inu dog Floki, was valued at around $0.000063 before its brief blip, but temporarily reached a high of around $0.000075, CoinMarketCap data shows.
Floki Inu failed to maintain its increase, though. Less than an hour after the near-vertical price jump, the coin had sunk back to its previous value and then continued to sink.
As of 5:00 a.m. EDT on Monday morning the token was worth around $0.000052, down 16.4 percent over the past 24 hours.
The 10-minute price spike appeared to take place just minutes after Musk posted a photo of Floki sitting in the front trunk, or “frunk” of a Tesla car. In a caption, he wrote: “Floki Frunkpuppy.”
Cryptocurrency prices are notoriously volatile. They can often fluctuate wildly in a short period of time. Experts have previously told Newsweek about the risks and dangers associated with trading them.
Tokens such as Floki Inu have become increasingly common on the cryptocurrency market recently. They’re often referred to as meme coins and make use of some sort of dog-themed mascot or icon.
The market is saturated with spinoffs and spinoffs of spinoffs. Shiba Inu, Baby Shiba Inu, and Baby Floki are some examples of these dog-themed tokens and their follow-ups.
The phenomenon goes back to Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency token originally created as a joke back in 2013 that ended up achieving mainstream success. Dogecoin was worth around $0.21 on Monday morning with a market cap of $28 billion. The market cap of Floki Inu was around $494 million at the same time.
Sunday night was not the first time that Musk appeared to have sparked interest in the Floki Inu token—inadvertently or not.
On September 12, Musk posted a photo of Floki asleep on a carpet with the caption “Floki has arrived.”
That same morning Floki Inu saw a sharp rise in price that lasted until September 16, before dipping and rising again throughout the rest of the month, CoinMarketCap data shows.
The Floki token was introduced in the summer of this year shortly after Elon Musk tweeted in June that he would be buying a new Shiba Inu dog named Floki.
A cryptocurrency price rise is hard to predict. While many cryptocurrency enthusiasts hope that a lucky endorsement by Musk will make their investment worthwhile, the market does not always respond positively to his comments.
Musk’s appearance on Saturday Night Live in May this year was being touted as a potentially major boost for Dogecoin—the cryptocurrency token he’s often associated with. However, his appearance actually led to a price plummet that the token has not recovered from since.
Dogecoin is currently down 70 percent from its all-time high of $0.73, which it had achieved shortly before the SNL plunge.