Dogecoin, a meme-inspired cryptocurrency that was started as a joke in 2013, is now worth $50 billion after a gravity-defying year-to-date rally of 7,199%.
The rally was sparked by a series of tweets from Elon Musk earlier this year, as well as from Snoop Dogg, Gene Simmons, and Guy Fieri. An overall increase in demand for crypto among investors following bitcoin’s surge to more than $60,000 and the direct listing of crypto-exchange platform Coinbase likely also helped support the continued rally in dogecoin.
Even some congressman are getting in on the dogecoin craze, with house member Mark Green disclosing that he purchased the cryptocurrency earlier this month.
Dogecoin differs from bitcoin in that there is no hard limit on the total supply of coins. Bitcoin has a fixed supply of about 21 million coins, of which not all have been mined yet. Dogecoin on the other hand has more than 129 billion coins outstanding, with 5 billion in new coins hitting the supply every year.
Even the founder of dogecoin, Billy Markus, can’t make sense of the surge in the coin he started as a joke. Markus told The Wall Street Journal in February, “The idea of dogecoin being worth 8 cents is the same as GameStop being worth $325, it doesn’t make sense.”
Markus sold all of his dogecoins in 2015 and used the proceeds to purchase a Honda Civic, as even he couldn’t foresee the outsized influence a shiba dog would have on people’s investment decisions.
Dogecoin’s unlimited supply and the bewilderment of its founder hasn’t stopped investors from piling into the meme token, making it now more valuable than these 10 well-known companies.
1. Ross Stores
Ticker: ROST
Market Cap: $46.0 billion
2. Walgreens Boots Alliance
Ticker: WBA
Market Cap: $46.4 billion
3. Las Vegas Sands
Ticker: LVS
Market Cap: $46.8 billion
4. Kimberly-Clark
Ticker: KMB
Market Cap: $47.0 billion
5. CrowdStrike
Ticker: CRWD
Market Cap: $47.7 billion
6. Ford
Ticker: F
Market Cap: $48.0 billion
7. Carvana
Ticker: CVNA
Market Cap: $48.5 billion
8. Marriott
Ticker: MAR
Market Cap: $48.6 billion
9. Doordash
Ticker: DASH
Market Cap: $48.7 billion
10. Roku
Ticker: ROKU
Market Cap: $49.9 billion