Puzzled by Dogecoin? The ABCs of a $90 Billion Joke

As interest in cryptocurrency and trading in general spiked this year, Dogecoin was there waiting to be found by retail investors. Sam Bankman-Fried, founder and chief executive officer of the cryptocurrency derivatives exchange FTX, says that after brokerage app Robinhood restricted trading in GameStop Corp. stock at the height of a meme-driven stock-trading frenzy, “hundreds of millions of dollars moved seamlessly” into Dogecoin. The coin got a big boost on April 20, aka 4/20, a day traditionally associated with pot. Dogecoin users decided to celebrate #DogeDay and boost the price to 42¢, or 69¢ — another, uh, joke number — or even $1. They succeeded, sort of, with the price soaring to a record 41.9¢ that day, according to CoinGecko.com. It later slipped over 25% from that peak.