Budapest Post

Cum Deo pro Patria et Libertate
Budapest, Europe and world news

A joke cryptocurrency has risen more than 26,000% in the last six months, outpacing nearly every other investment

A joke cryptocurrency has risen more than 26,000% in the last six months, outpacing nearly every other investment

Dogecoin prices continue to break new records. Here's how a meme-inspired cryptocurrency took on rivals bitcoin, ethereum, and binance coin.

Dogecoin, the cryptocurrency branded after a viral dog meme from years ago, hit a new all-time high Friday afternoon. It now has a market capitalization of about $92 billion following a six-month climb of more than 26,000 percent.

Over that same time period, the S&P was up 19 percent, while crypto rivals bitcoin and ether were up 286 percent and 698 percent, respectively, according to CoinMarketCap. And stock market darling Tesla? It is up 56 percent since November.

“The joke is on Wall Street this time,” said Mati Greenspan, portfolio manager and founder of Quantum Economics. “What you have is a situation where teens on TikTok are outperforming even the smartest suits by thousands of percentage points.”

In 2013, software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer launched the satirical cryptocurrency as a way to make fun of bitcoin and the many other cryptocurrencies boasting grand plans to take over the world.


They called it dogecoin – pronounced “doje coin” with a soft “g” sound – after the once-popular “doge” shiba inu meme. Its purpose? To be a faster but “fun” alternative to bitcoin.

“The appeal of dogecoin has always been its honesty,” Galaxy’s researchers Alex Thorn and Karim Helmy explained in a note to clients on May 4. “Unlike many other cryptocurrency projects...there’s no grand vision, no pronouncements about how dogecoin will change the world.”

In addition, while bitcoin has a capped supply of 21 million coins, there is currently no limit to the number of dogecoins that can be created.

“One of the value propositions of bitcoin is digital scarcity; that there will only be 21 million,” said Greenspan. “There is no such hard cap [with dogecoin], and it has a really crazy inflation schedule.”

The Elon Musk effect


It isn’t totally clear when or why dogecoin captured the heart of Elon Musk.

The billionaire Tesla and SpaceX CEO has spent years talking up the token.

Musk’s tweets with sometimes oblique references to dogecoin often send it to new record-high prices. These posts have also helped drive retail investor interest.

“You have this one guy who is sort of like the cult leader,” said Asheesh Birla, a general manager at Ripple, which manages an alternative cryptocurrency used for payments.

Musk, however, isn’t alone in his celebrity endorsement of the animal-branded token. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, Snoop Dogg and Kiss bassist Gene Simmons have all publicly rallied behind dogecoin. Even beef jerky brand Slim Jim is getting in on the action.


Its price surge this week, attributed by one analyst to Elon Musk’s upcoming “Saturday Night Live” appearance on May 8, even managed to briefly crash Robinhood’s trading app.

But there is more to dogecoin’s record price run than just celebrity backing.

Market conditions have also been right. Multiple rounds of stimulus checks have meant people have more money on hand to spend. Apps like Robinhood have made it easier than ever for the casual investor to make a bet on stocks, turning day-trading into a pandemic pastime.

There is also the enduring sentiment to “stick it” to the establishment.

“Dogecoin is like this kind of big F-U to the system,” said Avi Felman, Head of Trading at BlockTower Capital. “It’s like, ‘Yeah, this thing can have value, too. And I’m just going to buy it, because I’m going to buy it.’”

Experts say the dynamic is reminiscent of the GameStop trading frenzy from earlier this year.

“Elon is basically pushing up this message of, ‘Why can’t dogecoin have value?’” said Felman. “It’s part of the GameStop boom. People like these narratives. They like these stories. They like these jokes. And dogecoin just captured the mind and imagination of every single retail investor.”

The rise of commission-free trading through online brokerage apps like Robinhood also made it easier than ever to buy into crypto.

“You have a rabid online community,” Birla said of the fanbase of doge evangelists. “You have Twitter and Reddit, where they’re all sort of congregating and thinking about how to pump dogecoin.”

Valuing dogecoin


The question of whether dogecoin holds value is debatable.

At the moment, there are very few use cases for the token. Though more merchants are starting to accept dogecoin as a method of payment, it is nowhere near the level of adoption necessary to be used as any sort of actual currency substitute.

“These days it’s all one big marketing ploy,” said Mike Bucella, BlockTower Capital general partner.

Unlike rival cryptocurrencies such as ethereum, which let programmers build applications on their platform to do things like lend and borrow money, there isn’t much anyone can do with dogecoin.

Dogecoin isn’t really a reliable store of wealth either, given that this typically requires a certain degree of long-term faith in the coin and the blockchain upon which it’s been built.

“If you look at the dogecoin protocol itself, I don’t even know if there’s anyone over the last several years who has added new functionality or code to it,” said Birla. “Dogecoin doesn’t really have a development team behind it.”

Given these limitations, the run-up in dogecoin appears to be purely speculative. Dogecoin has value because other people believe that it has value. And because they believe that someone else is willing to buy it from them at a higher price.

“We see dogecoin rising in price as a factor of low liquidity and extreme growth in the network,” explained Greenspan. “Once the network does reach critical mass, I don’t think that type of growth is sustainable.”

But all is not lost for the future of dogecoin.

“The real value is in today’s meme-driven culture, and doge represents the network value of memetics, which may prove to be enormous,” explained Bucella. “If at some point, the doge community decides to implement a burn or new supply mechanism, via a protocol hard fork, then this value will have a higher likelihood of being retained long-term.”

AI Disclaimer: An advanced artificial intelligence (AI) system generated the content of this page on its own. This innovative technology conducts extensive research from a variety of reliable sources, performs rigorous fact-checking and verification, cleans up and balances biased or manipulated content, and presents a minimal factual summary that is just enough yet essential for you to function as an informed and educated citizen. Please keep in mind, however, that this system is an evolving technology, and as a result, the article may contain accidental inaccuracies or errors. We urge you to help us improve our site by reporting any inaccuracies you find using the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of this page. Your helpful feedback helps us improve our system and deliver more precise content. When you find an article of interest here, please look for the full and extensive coverage of this topic in traditional news sources, as they are written by professional journalists that we try to support, not replace. We appreciate your understanding and assistance.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
IMF Upgrades Global Growth Forecast as Weaker Dollar Supports Outlook
House Republicans Move to Defund OECD Over Global Tax Dispute
France Opens Criminal Investigation into X Over Algorithm Manipulation Allegations
Trump Steamrolls EU in Landmark Trade Win: US–EU Trade Deal Imposes 15% Tariff on European Imports
ChatGPT CEO Sam Altman says people share personal info with ChatGPT but don’t know chats can be used as court evidence in legal cases.
Intel Reports Revenue Beats but Sees 81% Rise in Losses
Politics is a good business: Barack Obama’s Reported Net Worth Growth, 1990–2025
UN's Top Court Declares Environmental Protection a Legal Obligation Under International Law
"Crazy Thing": OpenAI's Sam Altman Warns Of AI Voice Fraud Crisis In Banking
The Podcaster Who Accidentally Revealed He Earns Over $10 Million a Year
UK Government Considers Dropping Demand for Apple Encryption Backdoor
Japanese Man Discovers Family Connection Through DNA Testing After Decades of Separation
Russia Signals Openness to Ukraine Peace Talks Amid Escalating Drone Warfare
Switzerland Implements Ban on Mammography Screening
Pogacar Extends Dominance with Stage Fifteen Triumph at Tour de France
President Trump Diagnosed with Chronic Venous Insufficiency After Leg Swelling
CEO Resigns Amid Controversy Over Relationship with HR Executive
NVIDIA Achieves $4 Trillion Valuation Amid AI Demand
Tulsi Gabbard Unveils Evidence Alleging Political Manipulation of Intelligence During Trump Administration
Centrist Criticism of von der Leyen Resurfaces as she Survives EU Confidence Vote
Trump Announces Coca-Cola to Shift to Cane Sugar in U.S. Production
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
Zelensky Reshuffles Cabinet to Win Support at Home and in Washington
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Church of England Removes 1991 Sexuality Guidelines from Clergy Selection
Superman Franchise Achieves Success with Latest Release
Hungary's Viktor Orban Rejects Agreements on Illegal Migration
Air India Pilot’s Mental Health Records Under Scrutiny
Jamie Dimon Warns Europe Is Losing Global Competitiveness and Flags Market Complacency
Moonshot AI Unveils Kimi K2: A New Open-Source AI Model
Martha Wells Says Humanity Still Far from True Artificial Intelligence
Nvidia Becomes World’s First Four‑Trillion‑Dollar Company Amid AI Boom
EU Delays Retaliatory Tariffs Amid New U.S. Threats on Imports
Trump Proposes Supplying Arms to Ukraine Through NATO Allies
US Opens First Rare Earth Mine in Over 70 Years in Wyoming
Bitcoin Reaches New Milestone of $116,000
Severe Heatwave Claims 2,300 Lives Across Europe
Declining Beer Consumption Signals Cultural Shift in Germany
Emails Leaked: How Passenger Luggage Became a Side Income for Airport Workers
Polish MEP: “Dear Leftists - China is laughing at you, Russia is laughing, India is laughing”
Western Europe Records Hottest June on Record
BRICS Expands Membership with Indonesia and Ten New Partner Countries
Elon Musk Founds a Party Following a Poll on X: "You Wanted It – You Got It!"
China’s Central Bank Consults European Peers on Low-Rate Strategies
France Requests Airlines to Cut Flights at Paris Airports Amid Planned Air Traffic Controller Strike
Poland Implements Border Checks Amid Growing Migration Tensions
Emirates Airline Expands Market Share with New $20 Million Campaign
Amazon Reaches Milestone with Deployment of One Millionth Robot
Yulia Putintseva Calls for Spectator Ejection at Wimbledon Over Safety Concerns
House Oversight Committee Subpoenas Former Jill Biden Aide Amid Investigation into Alleged Concealment of President Biden's Cognitive Health
×