Tesla CEO Elon Musk photographed in Austin, Texas, on April 7, 2022. The electric vehicle firm has also made forays into battery storage.
Suzanne Cordeiro | AFP | Getty Images
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.
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, apopular 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.
Host Elon Musk during the monologue on Saturday, May 8, 2021.
Will Heath | NBCUniversal
The Elon Musk effect
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 dogecoin have often sent it to new record-high prices. These posts have also helped drive retail investor interest.
“You have this one guy who is sort of like the cult leader,” said Asheesh Birla, a general manager at Ripple, which manages an alternative cryptocurrency used for payments.
Musk, however, isn’t alone in his celebrity endorsement of the animal-branded token. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, Snoop Dogg and Kiss bassist Gene Simmons have all publicly rallied behind dogecoin in the past. Even beef jerky brand Slim Jim got in on the action at one point.
But there was more to dogecoin’s record price run than just celebrity backing. There has also been the enduring sentiment to “stick it” to the establishment.
“Dogecoin is like this kind of big F-U to the system,” said Avi Felman, Head of Trading at BlockTower Capital. “It’s like, ‘Yeah, this thing can have value, too. And I’m just going to buy it, because I’m going to buy it.'”
“Elon is basically pushing up this message of, ‘Why can’t dogecoin have value?'” said Felman of doge’s 2021 price rise. “People like these narratives. They like these stories. They like these jokes. And dogecoin just captured the mind and imagination of every single retail investor.”
“You have a rabid online community,” Birla said of the fan base of doge evangelists.
In 2013, software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer launched the satirical cryptocurrency as a way to make fun of bitcoin and the many other cryptocurrencies boasting grand plans to take over the world.
“You have Twitter and Reddit, where they’re all sort of congregating and thinking about how to pump dogecoin,” said Birla.
Valuing dogecoin
The question of whether dogecoin holds value is debatable.
At the moment, there are very few use cases for the token. Though more merchants began to accept dogecoin as a method of payment last year, it is nowhere near the level of adoption necessary to be used as any sort of actual currency substitute.
“These days it’s all one big marketing ploy,” Mike Bucella, BlockTower Capital general partner, previously told CNBC.
Unlike rival cryptocurrencies such as ether, which let programmers build applications on their platform to do things like lend and borrow money, there isn’t much anyone can do with dogecoin.
Dogecoin isn’t really a reliable store of wealth either, given that this typically requires a certain degree of long-term faith in the coin and the blockchain upon which it’s been built.
“If you look at the dogecoin protocol itself, I don’t even know if there’s anyone over the last several years who has added new functionality or code to it,” said Birla. “Dogecoin doesn’t really have a development team behind it.”
Given these limitations, the run-up in dogecoin appears to be purely speculative. Dogecoin has value because other people believe that it has value — and because they believe that someone else is willing to buy it from them at a higher price.
Disclosure: “Saturday Night Live” is a TV show of NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC. CNBC owns the exclusive off-network cable rights to “Shark Tank,” which features Mark Cuban as a panelist.
Photos of the existing contaminated minelands that will be converted to solar under the recently approved Black Moshannon solar project in Rush Township, Centre County PA (Photo: PennEnvironment)
Rush Township supervisors in Centre County, Pennsylvania, voted this week to greenlight a key permit for the Black Moshannon Solar project – a large solar development that would turn toxic former mineland into a major source of clean power.
If built, the Pennsylvania solar project would generate 265 megawatts of electricity – enough to power about 200,000 homes annually – on nearly 2,000 acres of toxic mineland. Developers deliberately chose the site, as the project is designed to reclaim land left behind by mining and fold environmental cleanup into the solar buildout.
According to project plans, the site would be restored with pollinators and pollinator-friendly ground cover planted beneath the solar panels. Developers have also committed to ongoing water quality and soil testing during construction and operations, along with soil improvements such as applying lime to help neutralize mining-related contamination and support vegetation growth.
Beyond the environmental cleanup, the project is expected to deliver a financial boost to the region. Black Moshannon Solar is projected to generate more than $5 million in tax revenue for the Phillipsburg-Osceola Area School District, along with more than $700,000 in direct tax payments to Centre County.
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Environmental and energy advocates praised the township’s decision. David Masur, executive director of PennEnvironment, called the vote a model for other communities across the state. “We are hopeful that other local government officials across Pennsylvania will follow Rush Township’s lead and implement similar, much-needed solar projects all across the Keystone State.”
Jim Gregory, executive director of the Conservative Energy Network-Pennsylvania, also applauded the approval. “In 40 years, their forward-thinking decisions will be recognized as catalysts for environmental protection, public health improvements, and economic prosperity.”
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Genesis is gearing up to launch the stunning new flagship SUV. Ahead of its official debut, the GV90 leaked during an internal presentation, revealing our first look at the ultra-luxe electric SUV.
Genesis GV90 leak reveals coach doors and more
The GV90 is arriving as the largest, most luxurious Genesis SUV to date. Based on the Neolun Concept, the new flagship SUV will sit above the GV80 as Genesis expands into new segments.
As Genesis calls it, the “ultra-luxe, state-of-the-art SUV” stole the spotlight at the New York Auto Show last March.
It wasn’t the stunning, reductive design inspired by Korea’s moon-shaped porcelain jars or the premium Royal Indigo and Purple silk materials that caught most people’s attention at the event, but the B-pillarless coach doors.
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The SUV was showcased with Rolls-Royce-like coach doors, offering a new level of luxury for Genesis. Although we’ve seen the GV90 spotted out in public testing a few times now with coach doors, we wondered if they would make it to the production model.
The Genesis Neolun electric SUV concept, a preview of the GV90 (Source: Genesis)
After the full-size SUV reportedly leaked during an internal presentation, it looks like we’ve found our answer. The Genesis GV90 leak reveals two versions: a standard model and a coach-door model.
The leaked images from our friends at ShortsCar offer our first look at the production version in full. Earlier this month, a GV90 prototype was spotted out in public with the coach doors wide open, providing a sneak peek of the interior.
From what was shown, the cabin will feature a similar layout to the concept, with high-end purple and indigo materials. The GV90 was also caught with an all-black interior, which is expected to be the standard version.
A new video from the folks over at HealerTV offers a closer look at the breathtaking interior ahead of its official debut.
The GV90 appears to retain the gear selector located near the top of the steering wheel from the Neolun concept.
Another report, from TheKoreanCarBlog, confirms the new gear selector after the first interior spy shots surfaced.
From what we’ve seen so far, the GV90 is shaping up to be a near replica of the ultra-luxe Neolun concept. Genesis has yet to announce a launch date for the GV90, but it is expected to make an official debut by the end of the year with sales starting in mid-2026.
Prices and final specs, like driving range, will be revealed closer to launch, but the Genesis GV90 is rumoured to be the first vehicle to ride on Hyundai’s new eM platform.
Hyundai said the new platform will deliver a 50% improvement in range compared to its current E-GMP-based EVs, such as the IONIQ 5. It’s also expected to offer Level 3 autonomous driving as well as other advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) features.
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Turning cheap daytime solar into electricity you can actually use at night just got a lot cheaper. A new analysis from energy think tank Ember shows that utility-scale battery storage costs have fallen to $65 per megawatt-hour (MWh) as of October 2025 in markets outside China and the US. At that level, pairing solar with batteries to deliver power when it’s needed is now economically viable.
Battery storage costs have fallen dramatically over the past two years, and the decline continues. Following a steep decline in 2024, Ember’s analysis indicates that prices continued to fall sharply again in 2025.
The findings are based on real-world data from recent battery and solar-plus-storage auctions in Italy, Saudi Arabia, and India, as well as interviews with active developers across global markets.
According to Ember, the cost of a whole, grid-connected utility-scale battery storage system for long-duration projects (four hours or more) is now about $125 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) as of October 2025. That figure applies to projects outside China and the US. Core battery equipment delivered from China costs around $75/kWh, while installation and grid connection typically add another $50/kWh.
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Those lower upfront costs have pushed down the levelized cost of storage (LCOS) to just $65/MWh. Ember’s calculation reflects real-world assumptions around financing costs, system lifetime, efficiency, and battery degradation.
Cheaper hardware isn’t the only reason storage costs are falling. Longer battery lifetimes, higher efficiencies, and lower financing costs, helped by clearer revenue models such as auctions, have all contributed to the sharp drop in LCOS. Ember has published a live calculator alongside the report, allowing users to estimate LCOS using their own assumptions.
Why this matters comes down to how solar is actually used. Most solar power is generated during the day, so only a portion needs to be stored to make it dispatchable. Ember estimates that if half of daytime solar generation is shifted to nighttime, the $65/MWh storage cost adds about $33/MWh to the cost of solar electricity.
With the global average price of solar at $43/MWh in 2024, adding storage would bring the total cost to about $76/MWh, delivering power in a way that better matches real demand.
As Ember global electricity analyst Kostantsa Rangelova put it, after a 40% drop in battery equipment costs in 2024, the industry is now on track for another major fall in 2025. The economics of battery storage, she said, are “unrecognizable,” and the industry is still adjusting to this new reality.
“Solar is no longer just cheap daytime electricity; now it’s anytime dispatchable electricity. This is a game-changer for countries with fast-growing demand and strong solar resources,” Rangelova added.
Together, solar and battery storage are increasingly emerging as a scalable, secure, and affordable foundation for future power systems.
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