'Dogecoin is a hustle': Elon Musk sends his 'fav' cryptocurrency tumbling on Saturday Night Live

Elon Musk sent his "favourite" cryptocurrency's value plummeting with just four words after trashing it in a sketch on the popular US satire show, Saturday Night Live.

The program had been heavily awaited by traders of Dogecoin, an obscure cryptocurrency that Mr Musk has propelled to fame, after the tech billionaire announced his appearance by calling himself the "Dogefather".

But it ended badly after Mr Musk, best known for his founding of the Tesla luxury electric car company and SpaceX, appeared in a sketch rubbishing it.

His character, a bespectacled, bow-tie wearing "financial expert", was questioned about Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency that started as a parody of bitcoin back in 2013.

"It's a hustle?" they asked.

"Yeah, it's a hustle," Mr Musk replied.

The remark may have been intended as a joke, but the price of Dogecoin, which Mr Musk has described as "The People's Crypto" and "my fav cryptocurrency", fell off a cliff.

Before he appeared in the sketch, Dogecoin was trading at 73 cents (52 pence). By Sunday morning it was trading at 46 cents.

It had soared thanks to a series of tweets by Mr Musk.

On April Fool's Day he tweeted "SpaceX is going to put a literal Dogecoin on the literal moon."

The rise was unstoppable, especially after he announced his appearance as the "Dogefather" on Saturday Night Live and tweeted a picture of himself with Shiba Inu, the dog breed, whose image is used to promote the Dogecoin.

SpaceX said on Sunday it would launch the "DOGE-1 Mission to the Moon" in the first quarter of next year, with the company accepting the Dogecoin as payment.

Mr Musk, reputedly the world's second-richest man with a net worth of $183.9 billion, also used his appearance to reveal that he had Asperger's syndrome, a mental disorder that causes problems with behaviour and social skills.

"I'm actually making history tonight as the first person with Asperger's to host SNL,” he said.

"Look, I know I say or post strange things but that's just how my brain works.

"To anyone I've offended I just want to say, I reinvented electric cars and I'm sending people to Mars in a rocket ship," he said.

"Did you think I was also going to be a chill, normal dude?"