Topline
The value of Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency originally invented as a joke, surged Thursday as Reddit traders target it in an attempt to mirror the mindblowing share rises in heavily shorted companies like GameStop, Blockbuster, and AMC.
Dogecoin value is rising as some Redditors try to emulate r/WallStreetBets (Photo by Yuriko … [+]
Key Facts
At the time of writing, Dogecoin is up 56% over the last 24 hours and experienced a 1,421% increase in trading volume according to crypto data firm CoinMarketCap.
Reddit users on the r/CryptoCurrency and r/SatoshiStreetBets discussions referenced the r/WallStreetBets’ efforts to squeeze out Wall Street shops from heavily shorted stocks and urged people to buy into Dogecoin.
Many are enthusiastically doing so and one thread, titled “Dogecoin is the next GME/Bitcoin” (GME is GameStop Corp.), said getting Dogecoin to $1 a coin (it’s currently around $0.01) would be “an incredible achievement” and “completely change the crypto market… Dogecoin to the moon.”
Other encouraging posts said “it’s doge time,” “we need doge to $1,” and “Doge = the crypto gme”.
Key Background
Thousands of at-home traders, many using Reddit forums to inform their trading, are piling resources into a number of heavily shorted and disliked stocks in a bid to drive out and penalize the Wall Street mainstays. Such meme companies include the bankrupt Blockbuster, GameStop, BlackBerry and AMC. The erratic and unpredictable markets have officials worried and White House Press Secretary Jan Psaki said the Treasury Department was “monitoring” the trading. “It’s a good reminder though that the stock market isn’t the only measure of the health of the economy,” Psaki said.
Big Number
24,900. This is how many members the r/SatoshiStreetBets subreddit has. Satoshi Nakamoto is the pseudonymous creator of bitcoin.
Surprising Fact
A single three-word tweet from Elon Musk in December sent Dogecoin soaring 20%. An earlier tweet from Musk, depicting the currency consuming the global financial system, saw it rise 14%.
What To Watch For
Regulators and tech companies are monitoring the situation with traders. Chat app Discord banned the r/WallStreetBets forum for hate speech and the Reddit forum temporarily went invite-only on Wednesday. Forbes has reached out to Reddit for comment.
Further Reading
‘Let’s All Get Rich’—Teen TikTok Traders Want To Send ‘Joke’ Bitcoin Rival Dogecoin To The Moon (Forbes)
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Did you guys see the that Dogecoin is at an all time high? Mark Cuban brought up the surge when he was on the news recently. Is it possible for Dogecoin to increase in price as much as Bitcoin has? Would you guys recommend buying Dogecoin? It seems like a good investment.
Hey Kennith,
We first purchased DOGE on Robinhood back in 2018, just for fun. But didn’t take it serious until we read about the movement behind it in other forums. As you can see just since you commented DOGE has continued to reach all time highs. When we started to take it serious, and researched it more, we purchased at $.02 and posted the steps on how to buy. This article was written and posted in Jan 2021. Here it is 5 months later and its touched and passed $.60. Mark Cuban has even talked about DOGE on Ellen’s day time network. Elon has stated he will do a DOGE skit this coming weekend. With all that said DOGE has a lot of hype behind it. It’s been titled the “People’s Coin”, and has made millionaires. But even with all of that hype, and MLB stadiums taking payments its not going any where near BTC. At least not until it has some major improvements. It’s the Peoples MeMe coin.