The price of dogecoin spiked more than 25% on Tuesday, shooting the value of the cryptocurrency originally designed as a joke to nearly 10 cents per coin as both the price and popularity of crypto reach historic levels.
The virtual currency, which originally started as an internet parody more than seven years ago, has surged more than 85% in the last 24 hours and is trading at $0.13, according to CoinDesk. Its market cap is now over $17 billion.
The latest surge comes as investors gear up for the direct listing of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global, which could further help validate crypto buying and selling as a business.
Dogecoin, as one of the smaller crypto tokens, has been subject to much greater volatility than its more mainstream counterparts like bitcoin and ethereum. Some of the biggest spikes ever for dogecoin came immediately after it was mentioned by Elon Musk on Twitter, for example.
Musk is Dogecoin’s richest fan, but he has previously been critical of the more established bitcoin, once calling it “BS” in a tweet. In a February interview on social app Clubhouse, though, Musk said he should have bought that digital currency eight years ago. His company Tesla has also promised customers that they can buy their cars with bitcoin.
Bitcoin also rocketed to a new record above $62,700 this week ahead of that listing, and other cryptocurrencies have also enjoyed big gains.
But Dogecoin’s rise is noteworthy. The currency has soared more than 2,000% from the start of the year, and has a big fan in Tesla CEO Elon Musk, whose tweets about it have on occasion driven up Dogecoin’s value.
Dogecoin has also enjoyed something of a cult status on Reddit, where a popular group — not unlike the WallStreetBets group behind GameStop’s rally — decided earlier this year to propel its value “to the moon.” Dogecoin soared over 600% in the wake of that push.
Major cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ethereum have also soared to record levels, with bitcoin topping $63,000 for the first time ever on Tuesday morning.
Retail investors have been extremely bullish lately when it comes to crypto, ahead of the highly anticipated IPO for cryptocurrency exchange platform Coinbase on Wednesday—even though the vast majority of fund managers believe the high prices are the result of a bubble.
Using crypto as a form of payment has also gained much more acceptance among large companies lately, including the likes of Tesla and PayPal.
