Tesla Inc chief Elon Musk said on Tuesday the electric carmaker will accept dogecoin as payment for merchandise on a test basis, sending the meme-based cryptocurrency up 24%.

"Tesla will make some merch buyable with Doge & see how it goes," Musk said in a tweet.

Dogecoin, popular among retail investors, raced up to $0.20 after the tweet. Musk's tweets on the cryptocurrency, including the one where he called it the "people's crypto," have helped the meme coin soar 5,859% over the past year, according to data from Coinbase website.