Dogecoin (DOGE) is a cryptocurrency that is based on a popular internet meme and originally was created as a joke in December 2013. The “joke coin” recently made headlines after seeing its market cap surge to an all-time high of $2 billion during the first weekend of 2018.
The huge recent upside is attributed to the overall surge in the interest of Bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and the rise of FOMO (fear of missing out) trading. As interest continues to grow in altcoins, traders are increasingly buying coins that have a low price because they are regarded as “cheap” and could have the potential to see explosive growth.
Dogecoin Background
Dogecoin was created by Jackson Palmer in December 2013 as a parody of the viral internet meme that featured cartoon of a Shiba Inu dog. The peer-to-peer payment cryptocurrency is mineable and has no limits on the amount of coins that can be mined. As of this article, Dogecoin has a price of $0.015502, a market cap of $1.75 billion, and a circulating coin supply of 112.69 billion DOGE.
Furthermore, it is also one of the very few cryptocurrencies that does not have a whitepaper, active development team, or thoughtful roadmap to help veteran traders see the future and potential for the network. Dogecoin seems to live up to its name as the “joke coin,” but does that really justify a market cap of nearly $2 billion?
Dogecoin Creator Cautious On DOGE Valuation
Dogecoin creater Jackson Palmer appears to be concerned with the valuation that his crypto currently holds, as he was recently quoted saying “I haven’t held a substantial amount of Dogecoin since early 2015 so the market cap doesn’t mean a lot to me – it does however act as a barometer for crypto mania and speculation.”
“I have a lot of faith in the Dogecoin core development team to keep the software stable and and secure, but I think it says a lot about the state of the cryptocurrency space in general that a currency with a dog on it which hasn’t released a software update in over 2 years has a $1B+ market cap.”
This brutal honesty is a sharp contrast from other cryptocurrency creators, which often seem to think the sky is the limit and their coins are perpetually undervalued despite lofty valuations.
Palmer goes on to say that he does believe the cryptocurrency space is in a bubble that will eventually pop, but he hopes this will not lead to the death of blockchain technology.
McAfee Makes Dogecoin “Coin Of The Week”
In another twist to the Dogecoin story, cryptocurrency and cyber security pioneer, John McAfee, gave the coin a shout out on his “coin of the week” Twitter series. Each week McAfee selects one coin to alert his Twitter followers to watch for various reasons.
Most responses to McAfee’s selection were of shock and disbelieve, as the majority of his previous picks have focused on network fundamentals, coin’s focus, upcoming ICO, etc. Dogecoin seemed to be a very unlikely choice from one of the most influential people in the cryptocurrency movement, but he defended his selection by saying:
“Introduced as a “joke coin” in December of 2013, the Doge Coin (DOGE) has grown, in four years, into one of most widely accepted and loved cryptocurrencies in the world. The recent re-interest in DOGE has ignited a well deserved price hike that I believe will continue unabated.”
Overall, Dogecoin seems to have outpaced its original intentions when Palmer initially created the cryptocurrency in 2013. Palmer’s statements absolutely ring true to the current state of “crypto mania,” when a coin with a picture of a dog is suddenly worth billions of dollars. Yet, there is no active development, no product, no income, no whitepaper, no roadmap, and no real purpose other than for entertainment.
At a current valuation of $1.75 billion, Dogecoin now has a larger market cap than Callaway Golf Company (NYSE: ELY), Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. (NYSE: RGR), Fitbit, Inc. (NYSE: FIT), Shake Shack, Inc. (NYSE: SHAK), and countless other well-known companies. How can Dogecoin be worth more than companies that have real businesses, revenue streams, and growth outlook? Welcome to crypto mania and the one of the most blatant examples of a serious bubble.
