Elon Musk has rediscovered his love for Dogecoin (DOGE) in recent weeks. After the Twitter CEO temporarily made the Shiba Inu – the mascot of the meme coin – the logo of the social media platform, Musk is now causing a stir in the Dogecoin community with a new bet.

Musk has offered via Twitter a reward of 1 million DOGE, the equivalent of about $83,500, to anyone who can prove that he owns an emerald mine. The bet comes after Twitter account DogeDesigner (@cb_doge), popular in the Dogecoin community, claimed that Elon Musk never owned an emerald mine.

“An open offer of 69,420 DOGE to all the media outlets who are publishing false information. Send me a proof of its existence & take your DOGE,” wrote the influencer, with whom the billionaire has communicated frequently in recent weeks. Musk replied, “I will pay a million Dogecoin for proof of this mine’s existence!”

Elon Musk never owned an emerald mine. @elonmusk

An open offer of 69.420 Doge to all the media outlets who are publishing false information. Send me a proof of its existence & take your doge.

@dvorahfr pic.twitter.com/jx32wArKUP

— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) April 12, 2023

What Is The Background To The Dogecoin Bet?

Media reports about Musk’s alleged ownership of the emerald mine date back to 2014. In a Forbes interview that year, Musk himself brought attention to the story.

Freelancer Jim Clash conducted an interview with Musk at the time, who was generally considered a wunderkind. He told the emerald mine story as a casual anecdote about his now-deceased father, Errol Musk.

“This is going to sound slightly crazy, but my father also had a share in an Emerald mine in Zambia,” Musk mentioned, as also revealed by YouTuber and podcaster Cody Johnston via Twitter in response to the bet.

This is you discussing the mine. pic.twitter.com/KwfFFF3G1r

— Cody Johnston (@drmistercody) April 13, 2023

Back in January of this year, the topic came up again. Musk denied the existence of the mine, tweeting, “The fake emerald mine thing is so annoying (sigh). Like where exactly is this thing anyway!?”

Tech critic Paris Marx then stated, “Musk and his family seem particularly sensitive about shaping the narrative about their history lately, especially around the emerald mine. They act like they’ve never heard of it before, even though he bragged to Forbes about it in 2014.”

Oddly, the interview in question is no longer on the Forbes website. Clash, the Forbes author at the time, told Futurism in January that he didn’t know why the magazine deleted the interview. “I did interview Elon, he said what he said, and I don’t know why they’d take it down.”

At press time, the Dogecoin price did not show much reaction to the new tweet by Elon Musk. DOGE was trading at $0.8411, up 2,1% in the last 24 hours.