A visual representation of dogecoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Yuriko Nakao | Getty Images
LONDON – Dogecoin is emerging after billionaire Elon Musk and several celebrities have appeared to support the cryptocurrency on Twitter.
The meme-inspired token rose 65% in 24 hours to a record high of $ 0.083745 at 5:30 pm Eastern Time on Sunday, according to data from CoinMarketCap. As of 5:00 am ET on Monday, dogecoin rose 25% at a price of $ 0.07415.
Dogecoin’s stellar performance increased its market value to more than $ 9.5 billion – briefly reaching a maximum of $ 10.7 billion on Sunday – becoming the No. 10 digital currency in the CoinMarketCap ranking.
At its intraday peak on Sunday, turnover on dogecoin reached about $ 13.5 billion in the past 24 hours.
Dogecoin was created in 2013 and is based on the then popular meme “doge” that depicts a Shiba Inu dog alongside multicolored text in the Comic Sans font. The cryptocurrency initially started out as a joke, but has since gained followers.
Retail investors recently raised the price of dogecoin, following the cue from Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s tweets. Musk has tweeted several times about dogecoin over the years.
Most recently, he posted a photo of a fictional magazine “Dogue” – a joke with the popular fashion title “Vogue” – leading to an 800% increase in the price of dogecoin.
Musk subsequently gave his support to bitcoin, saying it is “about to get widespread acceptance” in finance. But he added that he doesn’t have a “strong opinion” about other virtual currencies and that his dogecoin tweets should be considered jokes.
“But fate loves irony,” said Musk recently in the Clubhouse social audio app. “The most fun and the most ironic result would be for dogecoin to become Earth’s currency in the future.”
Musk made several tweets about dogecoin. Just two days after saying he planned to take a break on Twitter “for a while”, Musk came back, posting dogecoin memes and calling the token “the people’s cryptography”.
He joined names like Snoop Dogg and Kiss singer Gene Simmons in tweeting back dogecoin. Snoop Dogg, whose real name is Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr., tweeted on Musk with a parody of one of his albums. The words on the album cover are replaced by “Snoop Doge”, while the doge’s image covers Broadus’ face.
Meanwhile, Gene Simmons – whose real name is Gene Klein – actively promoted dogecoin to his followers, tweeting popular cryptography slangs like “HODL” and “to the moon”. Klein says he made a “six-digit” investment in dogecoin and also owns other cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin.
The episode is reminiscent of the crypto craze of late 2017, when the price of bitcoin soared to nearly $ 20,000 before dropping to nearly $ 3,000 the following year. Several celebrities announced cryptography in 2017, with some endorsing a controversial form of crowdfunding known as an “initial coin offering”.
Dogecoin’s resurgence in recent weeks is also due to the enthusiasm of a Reddit group called SatoshiStreetBets. Like the subreddit WallStreetBets, which helped fuel the recent GameStop rally, SatoshiStreetBets aims to raise cryptocurrency prices.