'Blue Bird' To 'Doge Meme': Why Has Elon Musk Changed Twitter's Logo?

A doge is a dog belonging to the Shiba Inu breed who became a popular meme on social media, and has since become the logo of Dogecoin cryptocurrency.

(Photo: Aroop Mishra/The Quint) 

In the latest change to Twitter, the company's erratic CEO Elon Musk on Tuesday, 4 April, changed its trademark "blue bird" logo to the "doge" meme.

What is a doge, you ask? A doge is basically a dog belonging to the Shiba Inu breed, which became a popular meme on social media and has since become the logo of Dogecoin cryptocurrency.

In a bid to highlight the change, Musk took to Twitter on Tuesday to share a post showing the doge logo driving a car and being stopped by a policeman, who checks its driving license only to find that it displays the blue bird logo.

Musk also shared a screenshot of an old conversation, during which a Twitter user had asked him to buy Twitter and change the blue bird logo to a doge.

Notably, the blue bird logo has been retained on Twitter's mobile application.

Responding to the unprecedented change, Dogecoin took to Twitter to say, "Very currency. Wow. Much Coin. How Money. So Crypto."

What Is Dogecoin? 

Dogecoin is a cryptocurrency which was created in 2013 to "mock" other popular cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. It was created by IBM software engineer Billy Markus and Adobe software engineer Jackson Palmer.

Despite its quirky and satirical nature, several investors consider it to be a legitimate blockchain technology.

What's Behind the Logo Change? 

The question on everybody's mind is, why exactly did Musk change the logo? And even if he did, why to the doge meme? We explain.

Musk, who bought Twitter last year for $44 billion, is known to be an enthusiastic supporter of Dogecoin. He has promoted the cryptocurrency not only on the platform, but also in his appearance on Saturday Night Live last year.

On 15 February, he had uploaded a picture displaying the doge meme as the CEO of Twitter with a caption that read, "The new CEO of Twitter is amazing."

After the logo change, the value of Dogecoin increased by over 20 percent, according to Variety.

This isn't the first time the cryptocurrency has benefitted because of Musk. In April 2021, its value increased by over 100 percent after Musk tweeted a picture of Joan Miro's famous painting Dog Barking at the Moon and captioned it, "Doge Barking at the Moon."

In December of the same year, Dogecoin's value rose by over 20 percent when Musk announced that Tesla would accept it as a means of payment.

Musk & Dogecoin – A Love Story Shrouded in Controversy

While many found the logo change hilarious, and said that it was a testament to the phrase "expect the unexpected" when it comes to Musk, others were not amused.

Here's why:

In June 2022, the Twitter CEO was slapped with a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, with the plaintiff accused him of "engaging in racketeering" to promote Dogecoin.

Among several allegations, the plaintiff pointed to Musk's gig on SNL, during which he portrayed the role of a fake financial expert who called Dogecoin a "hustle."

The petitioner has also demanded a whopping $258 billion in damages.

In a rebuttal, Musk's legal team filed a plea on Friday, 31 March, to have the lawsuit dismissed, according to Reuters.

Musk's lawyers argued that the plaintiff has not presented any proof that his statements in favour of the cryptocurrency defrauded anyone. Nor did he hide any facts from investors, the filing added.

"There is nothing unlawful about tweeting words of support for, or funny pictures about, a legitimate cryptocurrency that continues to hold a market cap of nearly $10 billion," the plea said, adding, "This court should put a stop to plaintiffs’ fantasy and dismiss the complaint."

(With inputs from Variety and Reuters.)