Elon Musk and Dogecoin (DOGE) have one big thing in common: Memes.
The world’s richest man is more or less a walking meme generator, and the world’s 10th-largest cryptocurrency is, literally, a meme.
So it was only fitting that Dogecoin’s inexorable rise to the top of the crypto charts was wholly dependent on Musk s***tposting a coin otherwise void of utility.
It’s inevitable pic.twitter.com/eBKnQm6QyF— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 18, 2020
Nor was it a surprise this week, when in typical memetic fashion Musk entered Twitter HQ carrying a kitchen sink to signal the completion of his purchase of the social media network, the little-DOGE-that-could went soaring once again.
Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in! pic.twitter.com/D68z4K2wq7— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 26, 2022
DOGE is now up 25% week on week after jumping 11% in the past day alone, bringing its circulating market capitalisation above US$10bn for the first time in two months.
Such is the power of memetic hype in the crypto markets, though in fairness there are more fundamental underpinnings to the rally.
Musk has supported DOGE in more ways than simply Tweeting out memes; earlier this year, he made it an official payment option in the Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) merchandise store.
He has also funded SpaceX’s aptly named DOGE-1 payload with the meme coin, though the literal moonshot has remained grounded for the time being.
Now there is speculation that Musk intends to integrate Dogecoin into Twitter somehow- whether by accepting Premium payments or even integrating a crypto wallet into the platform.
Nothing has been confirmed, but speculation and hype are two sides of the same coin thus has undoubtedly contributed to the rally.
Reality check
This latest price swell is absolute peanuts compared to DOGE’s last hype rally, when Dogecoin went parabolic in anticipation of Musk’s 2021 Saturday Night Live appearance.
In the four weeks prior to the show’s May 8 airtime, DOGE soared over 1,200%, bringing its market cap from below US$2bn to over US$70bn.
It turned out to be a damp squib when Musk said nought a word on DOGE. That may be been an act of mercy considering how incredibly cringe-inducing the episode was.
DOGE fell sharply following that non-event, though by that point the coin had a critical mass of ardent fans keeping it at the top of the crypto leagues.
So should you jump on this latest hype train? You do you, just be mindful of the risks.