SpaceX, a rocket company owned by the CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk will now accept the meme-inspired cryptocurrency dogecoin as payment.

The technology billionaire in a tweet said the commercial space exploration firm will launch the “DOGE-1 Mission to the Moon” early next year.

This development came as dogecoin continued to fall as Musk said disclosed on television that it was a “hustle”.

Musk who tweeted Last month, stated that SpaceX was going to put a “literal Dogecoin on the literal moon”

Canada’s Geometric Energy Corporation announced the dogecoin-funded mission earlier on Sunday, although the statement did not reveal its financial value, BBC reports.

“This mission will demonstrate the application of cryptocurrency beyond Earth orbit and set the foundation for interplanetary commerce”,

SpaceX Vice President of Commercial Sales Tom Ochinero was quoted as saying in the statement.

Mr Musk’s tweets in recent months have helped to turn the once-obscure digital currency, which was started as a social media joke, into the world’s fourth-biggest cryptocurrency.