Dogecoin[1] is known to many as the original meme-coin, and its supporters aspire to take it “to the moon.” Founded in 2013, it took many years for the coin to gain traction. Surprisingly, by May this year, the coin had rallied 14,000% with a market cap of $85 billion within just one year.
The Elon Musk effect
Despite the wider market corrections seen since then, the coin has surged 3,459.9% year-to-date (YTD). And most of that can be attributed to one person, Elon Musk[2]. The self-proclaimed “Dogefather,” Musk had relentlessly tweeted about the coin, acting as a savior each time the coin went on downward traction. Just last week, the billionaire changing his Twitter profile picture in support of the joke-coin led to its price surging.
The most recent example of the pumping could be seen at “The B-Word” event, where Musk was one of the main panelists. The coin jumped 10.51% the day after the SpaceX CEO revealed that he held DOGE in his personal investment portfolio along with Bitcoin [3]and Ether[4]. He also spoke in support of the coin, stating, “The #Doge community has great memes and loves dogs, and I love dogs and memes.”
Use case and upgrades are a concern
Such statements have left many bewildered in the past, and unarguably so. Time and again, analysts and enthusiasts have questioned the coin’s use case, its development capabilities, and its reliability as a serious investment option. In a recent podcast[5], Neha Narula, director of the Digital Currency Initiative at the MIT Media Lab, raised a few important points about the network’s robustness and security. Narula, who was the moderator at the B-Word event, expressed her surprise at the fact that Dogecoin was not attacked
