Dogecoin started off as a joke cryptocurrency but now has a market capitalization of $7 billion and a huge following. It doesn’t look like a joke again – many people are rushing to invest in it already.
The coin was created in 2013 by Adobe (News - Alert) Product Marketing Manager Jackson Palmer and software engineer Billy Markus. Since its creation, Dogecoin has begun its steady walk to the top of the cryptocurrency table, and the crypto bull run that happened at the beginning of 2021 gave it a tremendous boost. Because of the recent sudden popularity of Dogecoin, many investors and crypto enthusiasts are beginning to ask what suddenly led to the popularity of the Shiba Inu coin.
In just two months, Dogecoin rose in price by about 978%. The digital currency started its journey in 2021 at $0.0099 before soaring all the way up, hitting an all-time high of $0.42 in May 2021. Although the coin has been around for a couple of years, its bullish run this year has shown that it is one of the cryptocurrencies going to explode this year – of course, that is happening already.
In the first week of June 2021, Dogecoin was added to Coinbase, one of the world’s most popular cryptocurrency hubs. The announcement came as good news to investors, and right after the announcement, Dogecoin surged up a whopping 33%, bringing the coin to a clean new high. As of the time of writing this post, Dogecoin is $0.25 and crypto analysts have predicted that its price might continue to rise till the end of the year.
If you have been looking to know what Dogecoin is about, and why the coin became suddenly popular, here is a post for you.
Why Dogecoin is So Popular
There are different factors responsible for the recent surge in popularity of Dogecoin – a coin that started as a mere internet meme. Let’s take a quick look at some of them.
#1: Doge meme was popular on its own
Remember that the Dogecoin was named after the Doge meme that went really popular in 2013. In a bid to get more people aware of blockchain technology and its potentials, the creators of Dogecoin came together to create the coin. So the Dogecoin movement rode on the existing wave of popularity of the Doge meme at the time.
Then Dogecoin was launched in 2013 and named after the meme, it didn’t take the coin so much time before it got popular in the crypto space. It was well known for its blend of highly technical concepts and an element of fun. So, if we are wondering why Dogecoin became so popular, we should remember it was born out of a popular meme.
#2: It has excellent security features
Dogecoin is a cryptocurrency running on blockchain technology. Blockchain is known for its excellent security and so Dogecoin is one of the go-to coins when people are looking for a safe asset as a store of value. Dogecoin is an open-sourced peer-to-peer network that uses a Proof-of-Work algorithm like Bitcoin. However, the coin makes use of the scrypt mining algorithm which makes its mining less energy demanding, giving Dogecoin an edge over some other cryptos like BTC.
#3: Its wide acceptance among celebrities
We wouldn’t finish talking about Dogecoin’s popularity without talking about the influence of some celebrities on the coin. This has been a strong force behind its global acceptance this year. Popular among them is Elon Musk. Early this year, the Tesla CEO went really vocal in his tweets about the altcoin. In one of his tweets, he stated that Dogecoin might be the future currency of the earth.
Shortly after making that tweet, there was a sudden increase in the price of Dogecoin. Musk also at a point announced himself as the unofficial CEO of Dogecoin. After making a tweet about Dogecoin, the altcoin experienced about a 300% increase in price, breaking resistance of $0.06.
Apart from Elon Musk, there are also some other celebs that have contributed to the popularity of Dogecoin. Among them are Snoop Dogg, Gene Simmons, Kevin Jonas, etc. in fact, Snoop Dogg (the popular rapper) once changed his name from Snoop Dogg to Snoop Doge. And after making one funny tweet about Dogecoin in February 2021, there was a sudden surge in the price of Dogecoin.
Analysts proposed that Dogecoin’s price may likely hit $1 before the end of the year if it continues to enjoy fair support from celebrities.
#4: Doge rally
No doubt, the year 2021 has been a great year for cryptocurrencies as a whole. Both bitcoin and other altcoins have enjoyed a fair share of the market bull-run that happened at the opening of the year. Dogecoin has been stuck between $0.0018 and $0.0036 for a couple of years. But this year, it gained amazing momentum and went to a new all-time high of $0.141, breaking the long-term resistance. And from there, it has consistently hit new highs, including an all-time high of $0.360 in April 2021.
This arguably contributed immensely to its popularity and make many people want to invest in the coin. Both investors and crypto analysts believe Dogecoin will continue to enjoy a good rally throughout the year, and that has made them want to join the wagon, hence shooting up Dogecoin’s popularity.
#5: Dogecoin has some unique features
Yes, the coin has some unique features that keep drawing people’s attention to it. Being a product of a fork of Litecoin, which itself was a fork of Bitcoin, Dogecoin combines Bitcoin’s codebase and some other amazing features. Compared to Bitcoin, Dogecoin has faster blocks and has an average block time of 1 minute, compared to Bitcoin’s 10 minutes. That means a much faster transaction rate for Dogecoin and hence lower transaction fees. This makes Dogecoin even more accepted in the crypto community, making it even more popular.
#6: Growing adoptions and advancements
Many online stores now accept Dogecoin as a reliable payment option. Bitpay, one of the largest providers of crypto payment services now offers DOGE as a mode of payment across the world. At the same time, CoinFlip now allows users to buy Dogecoin with cash across their 1800 ATM network.
All these recent achievements and advancements are what’s contributing so much to the popularity of Dogecoin. So the next time you wonder why Dogecoin is growing so popular, you should be able to immediately pin-points some factors that may be backing up the altcoin.
