Dogecoin started out as a joke
Elon Musk has a special interest in DOGE
Market cap rises to over $ 40 billion level; far from being a joke
Trends are friends
Erratic speculation can be a sign of reaching a temporary peak
Parabolic candles in cryptocurrency continue to carry many tokens higher. The top two cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin and Ethereum, have recently moved to new highs. Bitcoin was trading at $ 65,520 on April 15, and Ethereum hit $ 2763 per coin on April 28.
At last count, the asset class had a total of 9,478 tokens with a market cap of just under $ 2.1 trillion. The two leaders hold about 64% of the market cap. Another 9,476 tokens have 36% remaining. Only eight cryptocurrencies have a market cap above the $ 30 billion level.
In seventh place is Dogecoin (DOGE), a token that started out as a joke. DOGE has recently strengthened to over 40 cents per token. As of April 28, Dogecoin was at 32.5 cents, with a market capitalization of over $ 42 billion, an amount far from being a joke in the asset class.
Dogecoin started out as a joke
Dogecoin is a cryptocurrency invented by software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer. The pair created a payment system that was instant, fun, and free of traditional banking fees. Dogecoin features the Shiba Inu dog face from the "Doge" meme as the same logo and name.
Dogecoin exploded on the cryptocurrency scene in December 2013 during the height of the first Bitcoin rally. The founders viewed their invention as a joke, with the idea of creating a ridiculous and entertaining crypto token cheap enough to attract a wide market.
Dogecoin is a slightly altered clone of Litecoin, which is the result of an improvement over Bitcoin. The founders launched the coins as just a joke of all the crazy altcoins that came to the market.
The value of each token is much less than one cent. Fans of Dogecoin, or "shibes" on the Reddit forums, started tipping each other for funny comments using Dogecoin.
Elon Musk has a special interest in DOGE
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been a huge Dogecoin fan for the past few months. On April 1, he tweeted, "SpaceX will put Dogecoin on the moon." In February, he tweeted, "Doge" followed by "Dogecoin is people's crypto." Elon Musk's talent at making nerdy engineers cool and famous made Dogecoin's price 50% higher after the tweet.
Musk isn't the only high-profile Dogecoin supporter. Unsurprisingly, cryptocurrency also caught the eye of rapper Snoop Dogg, who put "Snoop Doge" Shiba Inu on the album cover. Meanwhile, former KISS bassist Gene Simmons dubbed himself the "God of Dogecoin".
Mark Cuban, owner of the NBA Dallas Mavericks, highlighted Dogecoin in a recent episode of the Ellen DeGeneres show which suggested the team sell promotional products for payment using Dogecoin.
Altcoins that started out as jokes have benefited from the overwhelming positive support from the public and celebrities.
Market cap rises to over $ 40 billion level; far from being a joke
The top ten cryptocurrencies have a market cap above the $ 18 billion level. The exclusive group only amounts to less than 0.11% of the total number of tokens circulating in cyberspace.
Dogecoin is a member of this exclusive group. As of April 28, it is trading at a price of over 32 cents with a market capitalization of around $ 40 billion.
