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Dogecoin – the cryptocurrency based on a meme about an overly enthusiastic Shiba Inu dog – reached an all-time record price of 4 cents on Thursday night. This represents an incredible five-fold increase in the past 24 hours. The cryptocurrency was being traded for less than a penny on Wednesday night.
The Dogecoin rally seems to be connected to the WallStreetBets phenomenon. The subreddit WallStreetBets has been the nerve center of an online move to increase the value of GameStop and a handful of other stocks in an effort to bankrupt hedge funds that had taken large short positions in the shares. GameStop’s value has increased almost five times since the beginning of the week – and more than sixty times since last summer.
On Saturday morning, a Twitter account called WSB Chairman (which is not officially associated with the subreddit WallStreetBets) tweeted “Doge ever won a dollar?” The answer to that question is “no”, but some members of the WSB community have apparently decided to try to change that.
Dogecoin is a particularly inspired way for the WallStreetBets community to enter the world of cryptocurrency. While many fans of bitcoins and ethereum are serious hackers trying to change the world, dogecoin has been a meme-based joke since the beginning. Dogecoin gained prominence largely because the concept was so ridiculous that it was fun to write about. And as more people wrote about him, he attracted new converts who made an even higher bid.
This process peaked in early 2018, when dogecoin reached a high of almost 2 cents before dropping along with the rest of the cryptocurrency market. By early 2019, dogecoin had lost nearly 90 percent of its value and was trading for a fraction of a cent. He has languished in obscurity for the past two years.
It is fitting that the first cryptocurrency to see a major impact from the WallStreetBets craze is Dogecoin, arguably the first asset to have its value driven by the sheer strength of social media enthusiasm.