Twitter changes logo to Dogecoin cryptocurrency image in apparent late April fool’s day gag

Twitter changed its iconic blue bird logo on Monday to mimic the logo of a popular cryptocurrency – an image of a dog that featured in viral memes – in what appears to be a late April fool’s day gag from the company’s billionaire owner, Elon Musk.

On Monday, US time, users noted that the blue bird logo on Twitter’s homepage and loading screen had been replaced with the shiba inu image associated with the Dogecoin memecoin cryptocurrency.

In typical Musk fashion, he tweeted a meme noting the change.

The official Dogecoin account tweeted “Very currency. Wow. Much Coin. How Money. So Crypto.” in response.

Musk has not explained the reason for the change, but some users speculated it was meant to be an April fool’s day gag that the company was unable to bring in on time on 1 April.

It came just days after Musk petitioned a court in the US to dismiss a lawsuit filed against him by Dogecoin investors for $258bn over an alleged pyramid scheme.

Reuters reported in June last year that according to the complaint, the plaintiffs claim Musk knew that since 2019 the cryptocurrency had no value, but promoted Dogecoin to profit from its trading.

“Musk used his pedestal as world’s richest man to operate and manipulate the Dogecoin Pyramid Scheme for profit, exposure and amusement,” the complaint reportedly stated.

The plaintiffs reportedly complained the sell-off of Dogecoin began when Musk appeared on Saturday Night Live and referred to Dogecoin as a “hustle” in a segment.

Lawyers for Musk and Tesla have called the lawsuit’s allegations a “fanciful work of fiction” over Musk’s “innocuous and often silly tweets” about Dogecoin.

The value of Dogecoin jumped last year after Musk announced Tesla merchandise could be bought using it.

On changing Twitter’s logo, Dogecoin’s value jumped from US$0.079 to US$0.094, the highest value the currency has been since November last year.

According to a leaked internal memo, Twitter is now worth less than US$20bn, under half what Musk paid for it six months ago. Despite promising to remove legacy blue ticks for verified users from 1 April, the site has only so far removed the tick for the New York Times’ main Twitter account.