Who can beat Elon Musk in the space race?

As the CEO of a company that is bringing several people to space, with plans for a moon landing soon and a civilian-manned space trip in the works, putting his favorite Dogecoin into the lunar surface might be like a walk in the park for Musk.

But it seems Musk is facing serious opposition from Bitcoin and the crypto exchange Bitmex, as they vowed to beat Musk and Dogecoin to the moon, Forbes reported. Musk revealed plans last April of placing a "literal Dogecoin in the literal moon." '

Dogecoin to the Moon? Bitcoin First!

In a blog post, Bitmex declared that while it has nothing against "dog money," they felt it's just proper to bring Bitcoin to the moon first. They are planning to mint a special, physical Bitcoin--which would be similar to 2013's Casascius coins--and have it brought to the Moon by the space robotics company Astrobotic Technology late this year, Benzinga noted in a news report.

NASA has scheduled a moon trip for the fourth quarter of 2021 to have Astrobotic deliver scientific instruments and equipment to the moon's surface through the company's lander Peregrine, the Daily Express said in a report.

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Elon Musk: 'A New Space Race Has Begun'

In his response through a tweet, Musk has only six words for Bitmex: "A new space race has begun."

Musk, however, has a lot of work to do in beating Bitcoin in this "space race." It might lose out since SpaceX's Starship under its Artemis programme supported by NASA--which plots sending humans to the Moon and beyond--are still far off from meeting objectives.

Musk has long been identified with the meme-based coin, promoting it extensively in his online and in-person pronouncements. He has even called himself the "Dogefather" and was voted in a Twitter popularity poll as the "Dogecoin CEO." He actually confirmed in May that he was collaborating with Dogecoin developers in enhancing the blockchain's "system transaction efficiency," a statement that made the digital asset surge by 20 percent.

But this is to make up for a statement on NBC's "Saturday Night Live" last May when he called Dogecoin as a "hustle," thereby sending the coin's price to drop to a third of its value.

Elon Musk Hurt Bitcoin

As for Bitcoin, Musk actually helped the world's largest cryptocurrency to reach record-highs when he added $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin to the balance sheet of Tesla, wherein he serves as CEO. The company then allowed customers to pay for Tesla cars in Bitcoin.

Musk, however, abandoned his initiative months later that led to a steep fall in Bitcoin value. He canceled Bitcoin as a payment mode in Tesla over environmental concerns, particularly the use of fossil fuels in its mining.

Since then, his support has fully shifted to Dogecoin. He also backed the second largest cryptocurrency Ethereum, whose leader and co-founder Vitalik Bulein plans to bridge both Dogecoin and Ethereum for faster transaction times and lesser fees.

Musk also tweeted that Dogecoin will become the "currency of the Earth," as he continues pushing for the blockchain's upgrades.

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