The pressure is on as never before on McDonald's.
Will the owner of Big Mac accept the Dogecoin cryptocurrency as payment for fries and burgers? The fast-food chain now has its back against the wall because Tesla's (TSLA) Elon Musk has put on the pressure.
The campaign to put pressure on McDonald's (MCD), which was launched last week by the co-founder of Dogecoin and the fans of the so-called "people's way to pay," has just received the support of the richest man in the world.
McDonald's didn't respond immediately to a request to comment.
The tweet had already been shared and liked by over 178,000 people at the time of writing. Most comments were positive.
It's Tough to Say No to Elon Musk
It's an offer the band will have a hard time refusing.
Musk, the chief executive officer of electric car company Tesla and rocket maker SpaceX, is one of the most publicized CEOs. His personality goes beyond the sole sphere of electric vehicles and the conquest of space.
He has 71.5 million followers on his Twitter account. Each of his tweets is widely commented on.
Musk succeeded in making Tesla the world's leading automotive group by market value, while the manufacturer only produces one million cars compared to several million for competitors - GM (GM), Toyota (TOYOF) or Volkswagen (VLKAF) .
The Tesl leader was the second-ever billionaire CEO to host "Saturday Night Live" last year. Former President Donald Trump is the only other billionaire CEO to host the iconic show.
As we wrote on January 23, fans of Dogecoin, which features the image of the Shiba Inu dog as its logo and namesake, are pressuring the fast-food giant to allow them to use their favorite currency to pay for their purchases in its restaurants.
Bill Markus, the co-founder of Dogecoin, launched the campaign on January 19.
Basically, the idea is that if a large number of people get involved, McDonald's would then see an untapped reservoir of potential customers. Accepting the cryptocurrency would allow McDonald's to get its hands on a pool of millennials and Gen Z's much sought after by advertisers and its competitors.
Dogecoin has managed to develop a legion of fans who swear by it.
McDonald's Could Give Dogecoin a Big Boost
If McDonald's were to accept Dogecoin as a means of payment, it would be one of the biggest boosts the cryptocurrency has ever received.
There are currently almost 2,000 merchants accepting Dogecoin payments as of January 2022, according to Cryptwerk, and that number keeps going up.
The best known is Tesla, which has been accepting Dogecoin as payment for the purchase of merch from the electric vehicle company since Jan. 14. On the other hand, it is not possible to buy, for the moment, a Tesla car with Dogecoin.
Dogecoin is considered the first of the so-called "meme coins," which are inspired by a meme or have some humorous characteristic. It was created by software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer, who decided to create a payment system as a "joke", making fun of the wild speculation in cryptocurrencies
It has a few obvious benefits for small businesses as compared to bitcoin.
Bitcoin is more of a store value. Dogecoin is better geared for day-to-day transactions due to its unlimited supply and carries lower transactions fees.
However, Dogecoin has not been spared from the ongoing crypto crash. It has lost more than 81% of its market value since its May all-time high.
