Dogecoin has been having a great year, so far. Even as the world economy is reeling under the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the cryptocurrency that started as a joke has only been moving from strength to strength. Now, Dogecoin has found itself in the headlines, yet again, thanks to tech billionaire Elon Musk. Earlier today, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO — known for his cryptic tweets — created a flutter on the social media when he posted a tweet in support of Dogecoin.
Musk tweeted, “Doge barking at the moon,” referring to the cryptocurrency. This is not the first time he has tweeted in favour of the digital currency.
When did Dogecoin begin its journey? It all started in 2013 when IBM software engineer Billy Markus and Adobe engineer Jackson Palmer created the cryptocurrency for fun. The inspiration for Dogecoin was a dog meme. In fact, the mascot of the Dogecoin is the photo of a shiba inu from the popular Internet meme. But with time, Dogecoin had a fair number of people favouring it. The most notable name among them is Musk, who has been vocal in support of the cryptocurrency since 2019. Soon artists, tech giants, social media influencers joined him in believing in the capabilities of Dogecoin.
What followed was an unprecedented rise in Dogecoin value. For instance, in January 2021, the cryptocurrency was valued at under $0.01 (roughly 75 paise). It rose to nearly $0.10 (roughly Rs. 7.5) per Dogecoin in the month of February. On April 12, it recorded a value of $0.07 (roughly Rs. 5) and just three days later, on April 15, its value) stands at $0.13 (roughly Rs. 10). In terms of market figures, on Thursday, Dogecoin crossed $17 billion (roughly Rs. 1,27,680 crores), according to Coin Market Cap).
Dogecoin has been growing faster than its cryptocurrency counterparts, Bitcoin and Ethereum. While Dogecoin has had an 1163 percent growth between December 31, 2020, and April 12, 2021, Bitcoin has recorded over 104 percent year-to-date growth. Ethereum has seen a 193 percent jump in the same period.
The numbers make it evident that it has been a good year, so far, for cryptocurrencies. For instance, Bitcoin ended at $29,374 (roughly Rs. 22 lakhs) in 2020. On Thursday, it stands at $62,694.82 (roughly Rs. 47 lakhs). Similarly, Etherum stood at $730.37 (roughly Rs. 55,000) and today it is valued at $2,439.22 (roughly Rs. 2 lakhs).
To put things in perspective, if you had invested $1,000 (roughly Rs. 75,000) on January 1 in Bitcoin, you would have made $21,436.24 (roughly Rs. 16 lakhs) as of April 14. For the same investment, you would have made $9,605.71 (roughly Rs. 7 lakhs) on Ethereum. Dogecoin investors would have raked in $22,755.35 (roughly Rs. 17 lakhs), as per Crypto Ground.
While Musk and others continue to believe that Dogecoin has just started in its upward spiral, the catch remains the mainstream implementation of the currency. While organisations such as Tesla and NBA have begun accepting Bitcoin and Dogecoin, respectively, there remain questions regarding the sustainability of digital currencies.
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