What is Dogecoin, and Why is it Trending All of a Sudden?
In the past week, Dogecoin has been buzzing the internet, and many people ask what DOGE is? This post will explore all about Dogecoin and why people have been buying it in recent weeks. Why are retail investors pumping up this obscure cryptocurrency? Is there an underlying cause, or is it just a crowd movement without clear-cut purpose?
You will get answers to these and more in the course of this post. With Elon Musk and Reddit’s help, Dogecoin increased in price by 600% on January 28, 2021. What is going on, and why are people all over DOGE? Before we go any further, let’s understand what Dogecoin is.
What is DOGE?
DOGE is a digital currency or cryptocurrency that was launched in 2013. It was initially invented by software engineers Jackson Palmer and Billy Markus. The currency has a Shuba Inu dog’s image as its logo and has been marketed as the “fun” version of bitcoin.
Two weeks after the launch of Dogecoin, its price skyrocketed by 300% after China banned banks from investing in crypto. During the 2017 crypto bubble, Dogecoin also peaked and fell like the rest in 2018. Dogecoin enables peer-to-peer transactions across a decentralized network.
Why Is The Price Of Dogecoin Going Up?
On Fridays (January 29), Dogecoin was trading at $0.075 per coin, according to the data available on CoinMarketCap. The price jumped by almost 1000% (972%) from $0.007 the day before. Something is undoubtedly responsible for such a leap. The recent speculative investment in Dogecoin is connected to three independent activities. It has been fueled by the tweets of Elon Musk, SatoshiStreetBets Reddit, and TikTok.
Over the past week, Elon Must has been having fun with the retail investor phenomenon. Yahoo Finance said that a single three-word tweet from Elon Musk in December sent Dogecoin soaring by 20%. In the last 24 hours, DOGE was trading at $0.039, up by 41% but still below the trading price on January 29.
The current activities around DOGE come off the back of some Reddit threads calling for Dogecoin to hit $1. The idea was an attempt to copy the recent share surge in heavily shorted companies such as GameStop.
The Dogecoin Community
As noted by many experts and analysts, the main asset of DOGE is not its technology but the community. The Dogecoin community has been the underlying force behind the publicity of Dogecoin. Most of the community members think of Dogecoin as a currency in its own right.
Although much of the community, especially older members, are skeptical about the potential of Dogecoin. However, this doesn’t stop the community members and users from hoping that Dogecoin would touch the sky.
Conclusion
Now that you know what Dogecoin is, you need to trade carefully. As an investor and trader in crypto, you need to be very careful with how you put your money into Doge. There are more questions than answers concerning its recent performance in the market. Whatever you do with Doge, have it in mind that things can go south in the blink of an eye.
Okereke has a passion for researching blockchain and cryptocurrency. He enjoys creating long form educational content to inform others on the opportunities in this space.