On Saturday (October 29), trading volume of popular meme-based cryptocurrency $DOGE exploded to over $500 million in the past 24-hour period as the coin surged over 65% to become the 8th most valuable cryptoasset by market cap.
Dogecoin was initially released on 6 December 2013, as a “fun and friendly internet currency.” It was created by Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer. It is “a decentralized, peer-to-peer digital currency” that has as its mascot “Doge”, a Shiba Inu (a Japanese breed of dog).
Since then, its popularity has substantially increased, especially in the past couple of years, mostly thanks to support by billionaires Elon Musk (the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX) and Mark Cuban, to the point that it is currently the eight most valuable cryptocurrency, with a reported market cap of over $19 billion. In fact, in 2019, Musk said that $DOGE might be his favorite cryptocurrency.
According to data by TradingView, on Coinbase, currently (as of 5:40 p.m. on UTC on October 29), $DOGE is trading around $0.1434, which is a gain of 65.78% in the past 24-hour period.
Late on Thursday (October 27), Dogecoin fan Elon Musk completed his purchase of Twitter.
The reason that Dogecoin is pumping so hard is that many Dogecoin fans expect Musk to introduce new use cases for $DOGE within the Twitter app and/or the mysterious upcoming “everything app” codenamed X, which he tweeted about on 4 October 2022.
It is worth remembering that on 19 June 2022, Musk tweeted that he will keep supporting Dogecoin, which was not too surprising given that he has been saying nice things on Twitter about Dogecoin for the past three years.
For example, on 6 July 2022, CNN Business reported that The Boring Company, the American infrastructure and tunnel construction services company founded by Elon Musk in December 2016, has launched a way for customers to pay for rides on Loop, its underground public transportation system, which is currently available in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The CNN report went on to say:
“Loop consists of passengers traveling in Tesla vehicles that are driven by humans at about 35 mph, a significantly scaled-down version of founder Elon Musk’s original vision of high-occupancy vehicles moving at 150 mph. The Boring Company has described automating the driving and traveling at higher speeds in the future.
“The new payment option surfaced Friday as the Boring Company opened its first Loop station outside the Las Vegas Convention Center, which already has three stops. It’s also the latest example of Musk promoting Dogecoin, the cryptocurrency whose value has fallen sharply in the last year. The Boring Company hopes to eventually expand to more than 50 stations on the Vegas Strip, including casinos, resorts and Allegiant Stadium, home of the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders. Clarke County, Nevada, approved the expansion plan last year, which won’t use taxpayer dollars.
“Rides are currently free on Loop, with plans to charge eventually, though the company has not disclosed specific timing. Single rides will cost $1.50 and day passes can be purchased for $2.50, according to the Vegas Loop’s website. Riders will be able to scan a large QR code on a wall at the new Resorts World station to purchase a ticket. People who don’t wish to pay with Dogecoin can use a traditional credit card and US dollars.“
Shortly after the CNN Business report got published, Musk tweeted that he would continue supporting $DOGE “wherever possible.”
On 5 August 2022, the Tesla CEO had this to say about $DOGE:
“I’m mainly supporting DOGE frankly because I think DOGE has the memes and the dogs, and has a sense of humor, and doesn’t take itself too seriously...
“And I do think, actually weirdly, even though DOGE was just designed to be this ridiculous joke currency, the actual transactional throughput capability of DOGE is much higher than Bitcoin. And the fact that there’s five billion DOGE created every year is actually I think good for using it as a transactional currency.”
Here are a few examples of how the crypto community is reacting to Dogecoin’s insane rally:
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Featured Image via Unsplash
