What Is Dogecoin Cryptocurrency And Should You Invest In It?

What is Dogecoin? The cryptocurrency shaking up the trading market today started off as a 'joke coin' adapted from a meme. From engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer developing it in 2013 as a mock currency to its worth soaring on the internet in 2021, Dogecoin has come a long way.

Recent reports are showing a rise of 1250 percent in Dogecoin's trading volume, in only the year's second quarter between April and June, at a value of $995 million per day. It ranks easily in the top ten biggest cryptocurrencies in the world, trailing, however, near the bottom on a list with the high-value Bitcoin, Ethereum and Tether occupying top spots.

Even so, where Bitcoin rose by 0.63 percent in a day, as per Coinbase data from July 18, Dogecoin's rise was the most pronounced at 12.88 percent. On July 19, most major cryptocurrencies charted downwards, with Dogecoin taking a fall of 7.46 percent - a steep one compared to Bitcoin's 1.91 percent.

So is Dogecoin a strong, long-term contender to its senior counterparts?

The coin's Shiba Inu dog has become somewhat of a cultural symbol signalling the cryptocurrency's definition of itself as the "fun and friendly internet currency." How much does that personality translate into real-time value for the cryptocurrency? Or is it ultimately what it initially intended to be - a joke currency?

All You Need To Know About What Is Dogecoin

Kavita Gupta, FINTECH co-founder and visiting scholar at Stanford University, is a voice of authority in the crypto space. &t=1s">In an interview with &t=1s">SheThePeople, she says cryptocurrency for her balances on "utility," and to that end, she does not see 'joke coins' as sustainable in the long run.

"With respect to investments and money, the product needs to have a long-term value associated with it. What are you building? How will it continue to improve? I don't see that with Dogecoin or with other 'meme coins'. One can own a meme coin but what does one do with it? They will have to keep trading on it because nothing is getting built out of it," she says.

Cryptocurrency whales - select traders holding large shares - populating the Dogecoin market are another reason the currency stands on shaky ground. Once the whales withdraw, all the water potentially threatens to drain out.

Seasoned traders find dabbling in more solidly based currencies like Bitcoin and Ether more remunerative and credible. A boom in the share of women participants in the crypto space further shows these digital currencies are showing immense growth potential.

With Dogecoin, the value notoriously shoots up every time tech magnate and Tesla chief Elon Musk makes a reference to it on social media - either via a meme or as recently happened, a profile photo change that reflects the coin's Shiba Inu in his sunglasses.

However, for all of Musk's backing of the cryptocurrency, Dogecoin's own founder has publicly denounced the crypto space as it exists today.

"Despite claims of “decentralisation”, the cryptocurrency industry is controlled by a powerful cartel of wealthy figures who, with time, have evolved to incorporate many of the same institutions tied to the existing centralized financial system they supposedly set out to replace," Palmer tweeted last week.

Over the years, Dogecoin has tried to involve itself with several social fundraisers, including funding a Jamaican team that couldn't afford to participate in the 2014 Winter Olympics and water conservation projects in Kenya.