Elon Musk has said his rocket company SpaceX will now accept the meme-inspired cryptocurrency dogecoin as payment, the BBC reports.
In a tweet he said the commercial space exploration firm will launch the “DOGE-1 Mission to the Moon” early next year.
It came as dogecoin continued to fall after the technology billionaire said on television that it was a “hustle”.
Last month, he tweeted that SpaceX was going to put a “literal Dogecoin on the literal moon”.
Canada’s Geometric Energy Corporation announced the dogecoin-funded mission on Sunday, although the statement did not reveal its financial value.
“This mission will demonstrate the application of cryptocurrency beyond Earth orbit and set the foundation for interplanetary commerce”, SpaceX Vice President of Commercial Sales Tom Ochinero was quoted as saying in the statement.
Mr Musk’s tweets in recent months have helped to turn the once-obscure digital currency, which was started as a social media joke, into the world’s fourth-biggest cryptocurrency.
It has soared by more than 800% over the last month, with its total market value rising above $70bn, according to cryptocurrency data tracker CoinGecko.com.
However, dogecoin lost more than a third of its price on Sunday, after Mr Musk called it a “hustle” while he was hosting the Saturday Night Live comedy sketch television show.
