Memes? DOGE? Is it a bit confusing? OK, let’s start from the very beginning. Dogecoin (DOGE) is a cryptocurrency that features the famous internet’s Doge meme as its logo. That’s the connection between the gentle Shiba Inu dog and the crypto sphere. According to its creators, this character was chosen as a logo to keep the project light-hearted.
Dogecoin was created in 2013 as an instantaneous and free payment system. Its creators, Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer, two American software engineers, intended it to be just a joke. However, after its official release on December 6, 2013, Dogecoin started to attract many adepts. One month after its launch, Dogecoin.com had already been visited by more than one million people. Today, Dogecoin has a market capitalization of more than $5o billion.
It was created to allow for peer-to-peer transactions. This cryptocurrency has been notable because of its low price. Currently, this coin is widely used as a “tipping” token for media content.
As a first-generation cryptocurrency, Dogecoin doesn’t have advanced features such as smart contracts or staking. The main goal of its blockchain was to create a secure network. And Dogecoin achieved it. But what really has attracted a lot of followers is the spirit in which this coin was created. Markus and Palmer meant Dogecoin to spread fun and goodwill in the crypto community.
Some other notable features of this coin are:
- It is an open-source project that uses a scrypt algorithm;
- Its proof-of-work (PoW) is based on Litecoin (LTC) technology;
- The project was initiated with 100 billion coins in circulation. Since 2015, 5 billion additional coins are issued every year.
Unlike Bitcoin (BTC), Dogecoin has an unlimited supply. In the Dogecoin community, mining is called digging. Digging is not as competitive as mining for Bitcoin, for example. Hence, there is room for potential diggers to join the Dogecoin ecosystem in this way.
Dogecoin over the Years
In the last weeks, Dogecoin has exhibited huge price hikes. This is not the first time that something like this happens though. During the so-called crypto bubble, Dogecoin reached a historical height ($0.018) on January 7, 2018, just to fall over the rest of the year. This happened to most cryptocurrencies during 2017-2018. At the time, Dogecoin had a market capitalization of $2 billion.
In 2019, Dogecoin had another price surge during the summer. Elon Musk, currently the richest man on earth, had tweeted in April of that year: “fav cryptocurrency.” Dogecoin saw this tweet as an endorsement. Optimism about this coin grew, even more, when Binance listed it as one of its supported digital assets.
At the beginning of 2021, the value of Dogecoin skyrocketed. In a single day, it climbed 800%. This price surge was the result of a rally organized by some Reddit users to wreck predatory hedge funds. Some Reddit users noticed that certain hedge funds were shorting GameStop stocks. To stop this maneuver, this Reddit board made the cryptocurrency equivalent of GameStop. Reddit users began pouring money into Dogecoin, sending its price to $0.072.
On January 28, 2021, Elon Musk tweeted out a play on the popular fashion magazine “Vogue.” His tweet displayed a dog dressed glamorously for the cover of “Dogue.” Twitter and Reddit users immediately took it as the founder of Tesla supporting their actions.
Exchanges were not indifferent to this situation. On January 29, 2021, Robinhood, one of the major exchange apps, started restricting trading in cryptocurrencies. Robinhood announced it had turned off instant buying power for crypto. This move was met with a huge backlash. On the Google Play store, the Robinhood app received thousands of negative reviews. Google was forced to delete 100,000 of these reviews to salvage the app’s one-star rating.
At the beginning of February 2021, Dogecoin reached its all-time height of $0.082 for a market value above $10.5 billion. Such a hike put Dogecoin among the top ten cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. The top place was still occupied by Bitcoin with $810 billion. After the most recent surge in April 2021, Dogecoin hit its record-high price of more than $0.42 and exceeded a $50 billion market capitalization.
Should One Invest in DOGE?
With Dogecoin being more valuable than ever, should one invest in this digital asset? Trading DOGE offers big possibilities to make money on momentum. Several exchanges support DOGE and enthusiasts feel confident with the apparent support by Elon Musk expressed through a series of tweets.
DOGE has demonstrated how a project that started up as a parody of cryptocurrencies can grow to become one of the top digital assets in a few years.
If you want to purchase Dogecoin, you should opt for an exchange that doesn’t impose any restriction on trading. You can store this coin using a digital wallet app. However, if you plan on purchasing a large amount of this asset and hold it for a long time, you better opt for a hardware wallet. On LetsEchange.io, you can buy and sell Dogecoin and 210+ other coins instantly and safely.
Disclaimer
Please keep in mind that the above information is based exclusively on our observations and is provided for informational purposes only. It doesn't constitute any kind of financial advice nor represents an official forecast. Cryptocurrency is a highly volatile asset, and you are investing in it at your own risk.
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