THE PARODY COIN: DOGECOIN
Jackson Palmer, a program analyst at Adobe casually invented the Dogecoin in 2013, following the hype around cryptocurrencies. He blended two of the then trendy terms ‘Doge’ and ‘Bitcoin’ into Dogecoin. The meme spawned coin remained popular in social media platforms as a ‘tipping’ value for content creators in 2018. Highly valued for content creation, Doge is a popular Internet term for a dog which was a misspelling of the word in a TV series back in 2005.
Palmer, after purchasing the site dogecoin.com, created the logo of the coin just for fun. It was an instant hit within the first 30 days of its official launch. Later, he was approached by Billy Markus to make his casual creation a reality. That was it! The rest is history! According to Wikipedia, Billy Markus generated Dogecoin’s protocol on the existing cryptocurrencies of Luckycoin and Litecoin based on scrypt technology.
<img src="https://rashmisingha.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/greatness-2.jpg?w=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-396 lazyload" />
Source: Crypto Alerts
Dogecoin presents the Shiba Inu dog from the prominent Internet ‘dog’ meme. The meme coin originally had a circulation of $112bln in 2013, where all of it got mined by mid-2015. A single dogecoin was worth $0.01 having a total market cap of $1.19bln back in 2018. Currently, there is no hard cap for the supply of Dogecoins.
Recently, Dogecoin hit the headlines for its sudden price surge of 80%, a massive spike of 800% in trading volume. According to an article by CNBCTV18, Dogecoin reached a value of $7.17 billion to $8.2 billion in a single day, making it the ninth-largest cryptocurrency.
DOGECOIN’S HISTORY OF USE CASES
From being a part of a scam in 2017, the Dogecoin community was prominent for its charitable ventures. It also raised funds for Olympic athletes, water projects in Kenya, and even raised funds for the NASCAR driver, Josh Wise.
Dogecoin’s hard fork Dogethereum is no longer active, but Dogecoin did attain a 60% surge in price for a brief period prior to the Dogethereum launch in late September 2018. Back in early March 2018, Dogecoin was preferred for quicker payments where it was found to be on par with altcoins like Litecoin and BCH.
In fact, its wallet platform, Dogewallet was hacked and millions of coins were stolen, while the same number of coins were retrieved within a month of the cybertheft in a fundraising effort, SaveDogemas.
Ryan Kennedy, founder of the Dogecoin exchange in the name of Alex Green was infamous for tipping Dogecoins to complete strangers for a brief period.
There were Bitcoin ATMs offering Altcoins in 2018 reaching 4000 locations worldwide, where demand for Litecoin was quite high followed by Bitcoin Cash, Monero, Dogecoin, and Zcash. The ATMs made the process of buying bitcoins and altcoins easier with fiat currencies.
In May 2019, the crypto payments platform Bitrefill extending its hands with Tinder offered the option of using cryptocurrencies for the subscription process. Bitrefill lets users buy gift cards using Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Dash, and Dogecoin on Google Play or Apple iTunes. On Integration with Netflix, it released a statement :
Great news — We’re excited to roll out support for a highly requested service: Netflix! Subscriptions with the world’s largest streaming service can now be purchased and renewed with Bitcoin, Lightning, Ethereum, Litecoin, Dash, and Dogecoin. Source: Bitcoinist
In July 2019, a case study was performed on the merged mining in Dogecoin and Litecoin by Binance, which studied merged mining helping smaller blockchain in view of the halving of block mining rewards.
Yahoo Finance offered trading of Dogecoin along with other cryptocurrencies.
In January 2021, The Ren announced a tokenized version of DOGE, renDOGE to be launched on the Ethereum network. The DeFi project by Ren is supposed to benefit the Dogecoin community while they can participate and hold onto it at the same time.
The Ren mentioned:
If you’re a Dogecoin investor and long on the project, you can effectively take out a loan on your $DOGE, all made possible by OpenDAO. Dogecoin is no longer a meme coin; it is now a viable financial instrument in its own right.’ Source: cryptobriefing
DOGECOIN AND ITS COMMUNITY SUPPORT
Online casinos started supporting altcoin acceptance and payment options in the early days of September 2018, after BitStarz Casino.
There was also a petition for Dogecoin as an acceptance for payment options to Amazon products. The petition almost reached its goal of having 25000 signatures.
The Reddit group always came out for its support even when it experienced a dump in its price. Dogecoin is an inevitable part of the Reddit group.
The doge-enthusiast Shibe community constantly drives the momentum for operating the coin in various cohorts instead of using it just for investment.
Meanwhile, in April 2019, Jackson Palmer who left in 2015, made all of his crypto videos private on his Youtube channel, along with his Twitter account, due to a lot of controversies. While expressing his thoughts to Trustnodes, he said:
Dogecoin started as a parody of the multitude of alternative cryptocurrencies, or ‘altcoins,’ flooding the market at the time. As interest in Dogecoin grew through social media and an active Reddit community, it went on to become an educational gateway for many people dipping their toes into the world of cryptocurrencies for the first time, thanks to its low price and welcoming community.” Source: Trustnodes.com
DOGECOIN LISTINGS
On September 6, 2018, Bittrex listed Dogecoin in trading pairs of DOGE/USDT.
On July 5, 2019, Dogecoin was listed on Binance, followed by a price surge of 30%, while adding Dogecoin to its trust wallet.
Coinbase adding Dogecoin to the Coinbase wallet app in the month of May 2019 and giving the service to iOS and Android users. On Coinbase, private keys are encrypted using Secure Enclave Technology, a way to safeguard private data on mobile devices.
<img src="https://rashmisingha.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/coinbase-wallet.gif?w=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-327 lazyload" />
Source: coinbase
Exchanges like BitMax, OKEx, Cryptopia Crypto Exchange, listed Dogecoin for trading in the subsequent years.
Following its recent hike in 2021, the Binance exchange offered a bonus of 10 USD in Doge tokens to the first 25 new users. It was also listed by FTX, Huobi, including KuCoin.
TIMES IT WENT ‘PUMPING’!
In a chain swap project with Ethereum in 2018, Dogecoin was seen rising exponentially with 3X more transactions than BCH.
Dogecoin reached the top 25 cryptocurrency list prior to the launch of the project Dogethereum in 2018.
2017: Dogecoin is a joke 2018: Dogecoin is making your cryptocurrency look like a joke Dogecoin's 24hr tx volume is: 3x of BCH 8x of LTC 13x of DASH 35x of DCR 41x of BTG Dogecoin may have started as a joke, but their community is now the envy of the crypto world pic.twitter.com/YXIzqJWHez — Kevin Rooke (@kerooke) September 10, 2018
Source: bitcoinist.com
At one point, it almost beat every altcoin except Bitcoin and Ethereum when ETH saw a major sell-off from ICOs in 2018.
Doge price rose by 25% following a huge buzz of Musk claiming as its CEO. His fluctuation with favoring cryptocurrencies was directly proportional to the price surge of the particular cryptocurrency. He even went on to tweet his email address publicly. In April 2019, a poll was conducted on Twitter to which Musk replied with Dogecoin to be his ‘ favorite cryptocurrency’ and it being ‘pretty cool’. Elon Musk declaring his favorite currency influenced Huobi as well, elevating the rank of Dogecoin from 24 to 23rd cryptocurrency.
Dogecoin might be my fav cryptocurrency. It’s pretty cool. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 2, 2019
Source: cnbctv18.com
By mid-February, 2020, Dogecoin saw a 35% increase in daily transactions. Amidst the global crisis, a number of people started using Dogecoin, while Bitcoin experienced a marked decrease in daily transactions.
They have the best coin — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 3, 2020
Source: bitcoinist.com
In mid-July, 2020, catapulted by a viral TikTok video, the trading volumes spiked by 1900% in just two days, according to Coindesk. James Galante, a TikTok user made a video about sending Dogecoin to $1 if everyone invests $25 in it. Also, Dogecoin’s price rallied 150%, leaving XRP behind. However, the DOGE/USD exchange rate got a smash at approx $0.00569 on July 8, 2020
It’s inevitable pic.twitter.com/eBKnQm6QyF — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 18, 2020
Source: Cointelegraph
Later in December 2020, Elon Musk evoked the Dogecoin pump again with his tweet. The Dogecoin cryptocurrency exchange rate experienced a 15 percent rise within half an hour. With Musk’s tweet. the capitalization surged from $500 million to $600 million.
One word: Doge — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 20, 2020
Source: Cointelegraph
DOGECOIN AND ITS SHARE OF CRITICISMS
In 2020, The Atlanta based Bitcoin firm, Ryze called out Dogecoin for its insincere price behavior, like “pump-and-dump scams”, reminiscing a crypto frenzy case that duped investors of millions of dollars in 2017. In his weekly research note, he expressed the daytraders simply used all the social media platforms in a similar way just to pump-and-dump cryptocurrencies. A trend, which he found dangerous since it indulged with adults having no experience in investment. He expressed :
Young, inexperienced investors in their late teens/early 20’s heeding TikTok financial advice hoping to catch the next moonshot, can result in thousands of people getting burned and having a bad experience in crypto. Dogecoin was made in 2013 as a joke, it has no real use case. Source: bitcoinist
Gradually, traders started getting attracted to other investment alternatives like Ethereum, EOS, Tezos, Chainlink, and others, where according to Bitcoinist, the DOGE/USD pump failed to sustain itself beyond its yearly top of $0.00569.
A ‘PUMPING’ MONTH OF THE NEW YEAR!
The trade of DOGE/USD rose by 125% after insincere publicity of the meme-based altcoin by Elon Musk over Bitcoin reaching $38K.
Merry Christmas & happy holidays! 🎁 pic.twitter.com/uk6NSPwR9R — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 25, 2020
Source: Cointelegraph
Flare’s integration with Dogecoin pumped the price to 55%, which was hugely welcomed by 53% of Doge enthusiasts.
Dogecoin suddenly experienced a massive flood of tweets, along with the surge in trading volume, the currency’s price hit over 223% over the 24h period, ranking it in the 10th place for the first time since 2015.
Dogecoin tweet volume has surpassed Bitcoin over the last 24 hours. This is the first time we have on record that an altcoin has been tweeted about more than Bitcoin over a 24 hour period. — The TIE (@TheTIEIO) January 28, 2021
Source: Cointelegraph
The tweets were up by 1800%, which was followed by a pornhub integration. The same day, The Tie, tweeted on Dogecoin setting the new record for the most tweets over a 24 hour period.
#dogecoin #DOGE #ElonMusk Next Target : pic.twitter.com/JMU2Ye3guA — Cryptopunk (@Cryptopunk42) January 29, 2021
According to Cointelegraph, Dogecoin’s trading volume hiked by $5B on the Binance exchange on January 29, 2021. Also, the price of Doge surged around eightfold overnight from $0.012 to over $0.08, making it one of the top 10 cryptocurrencies since 2015.
$DOGE briefly surpasses #Bitcoin volume at $5 billion. What's next for #Dogecoin? https://t.co/rwjJuZCGZ2 — Cointelegraph Markets (@CointelegraphMT) January 29, 2021
It all started when Doge was mentioned in a group on Reddit r/WallStreetBets, which shifted the traders’ attention towards Dogecoin when the group stopped the further trading of GameStop and AMC.
Dogecoin bagged out the fastest bull market by 1100% when the group r/SatoshiStreetBets initiated the traders to buy the meme-based coin in just two days, same as how Gamestop and other assets got humongous demand in WallStreet Bets of The Reddit group. However, soon the market was found in a DoS Attack after the sudden 500 % surge. It didn’t affect the community but the price saw a dump, where Elon swayed his mind over by changing his bio to Bitcoin on 29 January 2021.
Later, FTX also created a WSB index listing the following assets for exchange, which included GME, Dogecoin, and others.
HALT IN THE WITHDRAWAL PROCESS
The same day, some of the Dogecoin supporting exchanges like Robinhood, Binance halted withdrawals due to the sudden increase of the DOGE/USDT trade.
$DOGE is _____________ — Binance (@binance) January 29, 2021
Robinhood even blocked the dogecoin trading link while re-enabling the feature again within a week later.
oof got sent confirmation pic.twitter.com/83n1LzslTs — wawin (@wawin) January 28, 2021
HOWEVER, THE FONDNESS WILL CONTINUE..
Dogecoin was just born out of a joke when Palmer splashed a dog’s face along with the Comic Sans text on the logo. The peculiar characteristic is the relation between Elon Musk and his tweets on Dogecoin. No doubt, Reddit was there long before Elon Musk came into the picture.
At the 2018 International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) Annual Japan Conference in Tokyo, Rostin Behnam, then CFTC Commissioner on highlighting the importance of distributed ledger technology (DLT), said:
Just take a moment to think about all the possible use cases for DLT from agriculture to healthcare, finance to art, CryptoKitties to Dogecoin. These innovations are more than just technology. They inspire us to find solutions for every problem or hurdle we encounter — and sometimes, they are just fun Source: Coindesk
The Reddit group is an active community in supporting the meme coin. On January 29, 2021, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, Elon Musk tweeted a magazine cover, where the Reddit group found Musk to be upholding the cryptocurrency and the community.
pic.twitter.com/a6kmk0PEgM — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 28, 2021
Source: cnbctv18
Even celebrities like Angela White, a movie star, and Kiss rocker Gene Simmons tweeted on being HODlers, aiding in boosting the price of Dogecoin.
Not recommending any of these to anyone. But yes, I also bought Dogecoin, XRP and others. Make of it what you will. — Gene Simmons (@genesimmons) February 1, 2021
Source: Cointelegraph
Lately, Elon Musk again created a buzz with his back-to-back tweets on supporting the satirical cryptocurrency.
Elon has gone full doge 😂 pic.twitter.com/urQ6Q0R2tz — Dan Held (@danheld) February 4, 2021
Source: Cointelegraph
The cohesion was strengthened later in the weekend with Snoop Dogg’s tweet, where the price rallied again by 27% on February 7, 2021.
@elonmusk pic.twitter.com/KElwKghpei — Snoop Dogg (@SnoopDogg) February 6, 2021
And Elon Musk yet again didn’t miss to surprise the community with his tweet.
So … it’s finally come to this … pic.twitter.com/Gf0Rg2QOaF — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 7, 2021
Source: Cointelegraph
The coin saw a lot of fluctuations regarding its price. Even though people think it to be a risk in investment, we can’t deny away from the fact that the very mention of the meme coin in a tweet or in any social media platform can catapult a massive buzz in a matter of hours. In fact, presently the funding rate has been found to be above average at around 0.1%. Above all, the community loves the inflation friendly coin and likes to invest in it.
Image Source: freepik