Dogecoin (DOGE) is just a long-running joke… with a capitalization of $11 billion. Is it possible to consider a coin that does not even try to be serious as an object for investment?
Well, yes. But why is it popular? Let’s figure it out!
A bit of history…
Dogecoin appeared on the first wave of altcoin popularity, in 2013. Its authors are Billy Markus from IBM and Jackson Palmer from Adobe. They worked on the creation of their coin for a titanic three hours, most of which was spent on connecting the Comic Sans font.
Sounds like a joke? It is: the authors of the coin had neither a business plan, nor a unique strategy, nor even any serious intentions. They simply copied the main code of Bitcoin, put the Shiba Inu from the then-popular Doge meme as a logo, and threw their coin into the market.
Well, the guys joked, and the whole market laughed – and continues to laugh until now. At the moment, there are almost 11 billion DOGE coins in circulation, each of them is trading at $0.08 (at the moment of writing).
From a technical point of view, Dogecoin is notable only for the fact that it is very quickly mined: one block is created about 10 times faster than Bitcoin. Otherwise, it is just a clone of Luckycoin, which is a clone of Litecoin, which, in turn, is copied from Bitcoin. True, the clone is inflationary: there is no maximum amount of DOGE, as many coins can exist.
When the community banded together for charity, the coin really gained popularity. A hacking assault on December 25, 2013, served as the first catalyst for the merger, which occurred on its own. About 1 million dollars’ worth of coins, or 11 million, were stolen by hackers. Users of Dogecoin made the decision to collect money and make restitution for the attack victims. SaveDogmas was the name of the initiative, which brought around 15 million Dogecoins.
This became the starting point for a subsequent series of charity events. So, later, $30,000 was raised for the Jamaican bobsleigh team and $7,500 for the Indian luger ShivKeshavan, $50,000 was raised for the construction of water facilities in Kenya, about $30,000 for providing service dogs to kids with disabilities, $55,000 for Josh Wise from NASCAR to race.
Well, today, according to buidlbee, the main advocate of the project is Elon Musk, who each time brings the cryptocurrency rate to new heights. He even noted that one day Dogecoin will be the official currency of Mars.
The high point of the coin was January 2021. Feeling their strength after the incident with Melvin Capital and GameStop, Reddit traders decided to raise the value of Dogecoin. Why it? Just like that, for fun, to test market mechanisms for strength.
The check was successful: the coin has risen in price by 800% in a day. And a little later, in early February, Elon Musk added fuel to the fire. On his Twitter, the billionaire posted a photo with a Falcon rocket taking off and left a caption: “DOGE” to it. Immediately after that, the asset jumped in price. And because of Musk’s statements, the coin continues to grow even with minor pullbacks.
Should you invest in Dogecoin now?
DOGE is one of the most unpredictable cryptocurrencies in the entire market, and definitely the most unpredictable in the top ten. Its course depends not so much on some objective reasons, but on the fluctuations of the information field and the words of opinion leaders (including Elon Musk’s tweets). However, perhaps it is the memetic nature and the glory of the “folk” cryptocurrency that will allow Dogecoin to surprise us more than once.
At least, this is the opinion of many investors who simply keep DOGE and use it out of loyalty to the idea of an asset. Yes, Dogecoin doesn’t have the scarcity that Bitcoin has, and the price chart of the coin resembles a roller coaster, but the unique positioning of this cryptocurrency leaves it with potential for growth.