Elon Musk has been reacting to the recent downturn in classic fashion – with memes. He’s posted two crypto-themed jokes overnight. (On an evening that has also seen a SpaceX launch.)

I’m not sure what this one has to do with bitcoin – or just heartbreak.

A day is a long time in the crypto market and after yesterday’s positivity – it saw all the major currencies on CoinMarketCap up, for the first time in a long time – they’re back down again over the last day. Everything is in the red, and the market has dropped by 1.6 per cent.

And most things is still green over the week. Every major currency apart from bitcoin has made gains in the last seven days, though some of them more modest than others.

The “largest bitcoin event in history” is underway in Miami, with organisers expecting up to 50,000 people to descend on the city for the conference.

Bitcoin 2021 was originally set to take place in Los Angeles in April but had to be put back and moved due to the pandemic.

Miami will be a very welcoming host, with Mayor Francis Suarez previously stating his ambition for his hometown to become a crypto hub. He’s even looking into ways for citizens to pay their taxes using cryptocurrency.

You can read the full story here:

Elon Musk’s tweets and comments relating to cryptocurrency have a tendency to move markets – in both directions.

When he announced that Tesla would accept bitcoin payments, the price sky rocketed. When he said that crypto payments would no longer be accepted, it crashed. (His ability to affect the trajectory of dogecoin is even more profound, though this is nearly unanimously positive.)

New analysis from sentiment tracking firm Awario has revealed that the ratio of positive-to-negative tweets about Musk shifted significantly towards the negative in May, corresponding with the plummeting price of bitcoin. Tracking certain key words found that online attitude shifted towards the tech billionaire at almost the exact moment he withdrew bitcoin support and the market turned.

It once again demonstrates the growing influence Musk has in the space, as well as how divisive his presence within it is.

With bitcoin inching ever closer to $40,000, some analysts are hopeful that the current uptick can continue for the rest of the month towards a new all-time high.

This is a hugely optimistic prediction, and only based on previous market patterns, but its indicative of a more general feeling of positive sentiment at the start of a new month.

Bitcoin is now up by more than 5 per cent over the last 24 hours, and is reaching towards the highest its been since this time last week.

As every major cryptocurrency experiences gains over the last day, so does the market as a whole: it’s up 6.6 per cent at the moment, and is now worth almost $1.8 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.

There has also been a lot of trading, according to the same tracker. It’s up and it’s busy, for the first time in a while.

All major cryptocurrencies have seen price gains over the last 24 hours, while simultaneously trading higher than this time last week.

This means that it’s a completely green board on the CoinMarketCap price index for the first time all week – barring that anomalous red mark from Tether, but that’s a stable coin so it is pegged to the US dollar.

Unsurprisingly, the biggest weekly movement comes from dogecoin, which saw a huge surge on Wednesday after Coinbase announced support. From today, users of Coinbase Pro will now be able to buy and sell the meme-inspired cryptocurrency for the first time.

With the market showing tentative signs of a comeback, we’ve gathered two experts to take your questions about bitcoin, dogecoin and the broader crypto space.

Readers of The Independent will be able to pose questions to Samantha Yap, a cryptocurrency expert who is the founder and CEO of blockchain and fintech PR firm YAP Global, and Fred Schebesta, a crypto advocate and founder of comparison platform Finder.com.

Why did this crash happen? Is it a market collapse or just a price correction? And what developments in the DeFi and crypto world are they most excited about?

Ask your questions before 11am BST tomorrow (3 June) and we’ll put them to our panellists. You can find out all the details right here:

American snack maker Slim Jim is getting involved in the current dogecoin price rally, sharing a traffic sign with the words: “Rise Up Doge Army.”

With the cryptocurrency on the march again, there have been renewed calls across social media to push the price to $1.

The Doge Army has so far managed to buck market expectations throughout 2021, with a stratospheric price rise fuelled almost entirely by memes and rocket emojis.

In trying to explain the phenomenon last month, founder of Traders of Crypto Antony Portno told The Independent: “Social media has been the key contributor to the growth of dogecoin… It has gathered a cult following.

“It has become an anti-establishment rebel coin.  Yes, it doesn’t make sense as an investment on core ‘fundamentals’ but who are you to tell me what I can invest in? Doge is two fingers to being told what to do, the rebellious coin.”

Leading price-tracking website CoinMarketCap has published its monthly predictions for 10 popular cryptocurrencies.

Crowd-sourcing estimates from tens of thousands of its users, CoinMarketcCap’s forecasts were unanimously positive. SafeMoon appears to have the most amount of hype surrounding it, with an average gain predicted of more than 80 per cent by the end of the month.

Interestingly, the crypto with the lowest estimate was dogecoin, with predicted gains of less than 10 per cent. In the hours since this report was published, dogecoin has already smashed past its $0.40 estimate and is now approaching $0.45.