All you need to know about Dogecoin: The meme which turned into a cryptocurrency

According to a report published by stock market news site Benzinga on Tuesday, the cryptocurrency soared to nearly 1,900% since the beginning of 2021.

Updated on: Apr 14, 2021, 12:25:17 IST

By hindustantimes.com | Written by Harshit Sabarwal | Edited by Avik Roy

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Dogecoin has once again grabbed attention after it soared to $0.122398 or 12 cents on Wednesday with Twitteratis and other social media users raving over the surge. Dogecoin is currently one of the top trends on Google. According to a report published by stock market news site Benzinga on Tuesday, the cryptocurrency soared to nearly 1,900% since the beginning of 2021. The Bitcoin, meanwhile, returned to about 117.47% during the same period, the report showed.

Dogecoin was created by two software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer as fun and instant cryptocurrency in December 2013. (Getty Images)

Initially, Dogecoin came into global prominence after several celebrities, including Tesla’s chief executive officer (CEO) Elon Musk, rapper Snoop Dogg and rock band Kiss’ bassist Gene Simmons took to Twitter to talk about it. Musk had on February 1 expressed his support for Dogecoin in an interview and said it is 'good thing’. However, he soon retracted his comments on the cryptocurrency and called it a ‘joke’.

Here is what you need to know about the cryptocurrency:

1. Dogecoin was created by two software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer as fun and instant cryptocurrency in December 2013. Markus had worked for the International Business Machines (IBM) while Palmer was employed with Adobe Inc.

2. The mascot of Dogecoin is a Shiba Inu from the popular internet meme Doge.

3. Within one month of its launch on December 6, 2013, Dogecoin’s website Dogcoin.com had over a million visitors.

4. On February 8 this year, Dogecoin climbed to a peak of about 8.2 US cents and reached a market capitalisation of $10.5 billion, data from CoinGecko showed and was ranked among the top 10 cryptocurrencies in terms of its market value. As of February, Dogecoin had a market value of $9.5 billion.

5. After the February 8 surge, Kiss’s Simmons pointed out how much people could have made if they had bought Dogecoin earlier.

(With agency inputs)