Dogecoin surges 35% as Elon Musk’s Twitter deal approaches close

Dogecoin, the cryptocurrency branded after a viral dog meme from 2013, is up 35% since Monday as Elon Musk’s deal to buy Twitter approaches a close.

The price of the token often moves in lockstep with comments made by the Tesla CEO. Doge is up 10% in the last 24 hours after the SpaceX chief changed his Twitter bio to “Chief of Twit” on Wednesday. Similarly, the meme token saw a price surge in April when Musk first floated the idea of adding dogecoin as a payment method for Twitter’s subscription service, Blue. It also saw a sell-off in June as Musk tried to back out of the purchase.

But following a monthslong battle between Musk and Twitter over the sale, all signs point to Musk closing the deal by his deadline of 5 p.m. on Friday. The alternative is Musk facing trial in a Delaware courtroom.

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The price surge in dogecoin — pronounced “doje coin” with a soft “g” sound — also coincides with rumors that Twitter is prototyping its own crypto wallet.

Jane Manchun Wong, a popular tech blogger known for her prescient calls in the space, tweeted on Monday that Twitter was “working on a ‘wallet prototype’ that supports ‘crypto deposit and withdrawal.'”

“We don’t know which kind of cryptocurrency will be supported yet, or which network,” Wong told CNBC.

Twitter has not announced a cryptocurrency wallet product, but the social media company did roll out a tipping feature last year, which allows users to send creators bitcoin via the platform. In February, Twitter added ether to its tips function.

It isn’t totally clear when or why dogecoin captured the heart of Elon Musk. The billionaire Tesla and SpaceX CEO has spent years talking up the token. 

Musk’s tweets with sometimes oblique references to…