Is It Time to Take Dogecoin Seriously?

GameStop, AMC, Shiba Inu — 2020 was the year of meme stocks and meme coins. These trending stocks and coins are mostly powered by retail investors who congregated on the subreddit, WallStreetBets. One of the meme coins Redditors want to take “to the moon” is Dogecoin, which sits 10th in the cryptocurrency market share as of this writing. Even entrepreneurs like Mark Cuban and Elon Musk can’t stop talking about the coin, which begs the question: do we need to start taking Dogecoin serious?

The history of Dogecoin

In 2013, software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer poked fun at the rising popularity of Bitcoin by creating their own joke currency. To make it more relatable, Markus and Palmer took the name of one of the internet’s most popular memes, Doge the Shiba Inu, who also became the face of the cryptocurrency.

In the early days, Dogecoin traded at $0.00026 to $0.00095 at its highest showing very little value and promise to serious investors. In fact, it was typically used by users as a reward or tip on websites like Reddit and Twitter.

A boon for Dogecoin

The pandemic triggered a resurgence for Dogecoin alongside the GameStop frenzy earlier this year. Investors rallied behind meme stocks and coins and HODL-ed on Dogecoin, which continued to pump its value.

Among the supporters of the coin is Elon Musk who posted several tweets, many of which are cryptic, but relate to Dogecoin. For example, he called Dogecoin “the people’s crypto” which garnered hundreds of thousands of likes and retweets. The coin has since fluctuated in value, but Yahoo! Finance attributed recent tweets from Musk to an uptick in the coin’s price.

Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban also recently recommended Dogecoin as a ‘fun’ investment. He highlighted that the crypto is useful for buying goods and services. This can make it a good short-term buy, while Bitcoin is better as a long-term investment. Among the many crypto posts on AskMoney, the finance site has a guide to Dogecoin. AskMoney explains in the guide that the reason Bitcoin is a good long-term investment is mostly because it has a lifetime cap of 21 million coins that can be mined, compared to the unlimited Dogecoin supply. Bitcoin’s fixed supply makes it much more valuable than the meme currency. When something is unlimited in supply, it tends to lose its value over time.

Should you buy Dogecoin?

That said, Dogecoin’s gains shouldn’t go unnoticed. Currently, Dogecoin is trading at $0.225316, which is a huge uptick from its value in 2013 — and it will continue to rise. Lots of retailers have begun accepting Dogecoin as payment, so it’s a good short-term investment for express currency. For instance, AMC now accepts Dogecoin payments for their digital cards — the two meme assets linking up is a true full circle moment for the internet generation.

While Dogecoin is a far cry from a serious long-term investment, Cuban’s description of it rings true: it’s a fun asset to own. That is, if you have the cash to spare and are willing to take a risk, now might be the right time to buy before Dogecoin skyrockets to the moon.

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