Dogecoin (DOGE) has recently had a spike that has increased the intrigue in the cryptocurrency that was once considered just a meme. Investopedia describes Dogecoin as: “…a peer-to-peer, open-source cryptocurrency…considered an altcoin and an ‘almost sarcastic’ meme coin.” The name comes from its shiba-inu breed dog mascot. Investopedia also notes that while the coin was pretty much created as a joke, the blockchain still has merit. The underlying technology of the currency is derived from Litecoin. The coin is also known for its low price and unlimited supply. While DOGE is considered an altcoin, it gets a wide audience not only for its meme factor but also because it is one of only four cryptocurrencies available on Robinhood.
The currency recently surged with after a series of tweets from Elon Musk and has left people asking, just what is DOGE? To learn more, we take you on a timeline journey of the currency from its humble beginnings to the present.
A History of DOGE
December 2013: The coin is officially launched on December 6, 2013 after being founded by Sydney, Australia based Adobe engineer Jackson Palmer and Portland, Oregon based IBM software engineer Billy Markus. The coin was designed based off of the technology of existing crytpo like Litecoin with scrypt technology and proof of work algorithms. The currency experienced a 300% jump its first month from $0.00026 USD to $0.00095 USD.
DOGE also had its first major theft and breach in the first month of its existence. On Christmas day 2013 hackers stole 21 million doge coins valued at an estimated $15,000 – $17,500.
January 2014: The DOGE coin community, in keeping with the meme tradition and paying homage to the nostalgia of the 1993 Disney film Cool Runnings, crowdfunded $30,000 to send the Jamaican bobsled team to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. At the time, more than 26 million DOGE coins were raised within hours, worth $30,000 USD.
March 2014: Reddit Dogecoin fans raised $55,000 to sponsor NASCAR driver Josh Wise. He competed in the Talladega Superspeedway with the #98 Doge branded car.
Late 2014: Grifter and now convicted rapist Ryan Kennedy started a Dogecoin exchange service called Moolah under the alias Alex Green. He also later purchased a digital coin exchange service called MintPal with partners that went under. It was later found he was committing various types of fraud that led to the collapse of the exchanges.
2015: Dogecoin co-founder Billy Markus grew disenchanted with the Dogecoin community and left it. He cashed out his cryptocurrency and bought a Honda Civic. Additionally, the other co-founder, Jackson Palmer, also announced his extended absence from the DOGE community.
2016: The hype around Dogecoin quieted for a while and the price remained steady.
2017-2018: DogeCoin went on a major run along with the rest of major cryptocurrencies peaking out at nearly two cents a coin placing its market cap at nearly two billion USD.
June 2020: TikTok influencers launched an informal campaign to try to get Dogecoin to go to $1 per coin driving the value up 71%.
January-February 2021: Dogecoin’s value increases 800% during the same time of the Game Stop short squeeze led by Reddit users. Additionally, Elon Musk’s tweets of support helped fuel the frenzy marking an all-time high for the currency peaking out at nearly eight cents a coin.
March 2021: The Dallas Mavericks, owned by entrepreneur Mark Cuban, became the first NBA team to accept Dogecoin for game tickets and fan merchandise.
April 2021: Dogecoin goes to an all-time high of 43 cents and shocks social and holders of the currency.
May 4, 2021: Dogecoin briefly hits 60 cents in the lead up to Elon Musk’s scheduled May 8 appearance on Saturday Night Live.
May 8, 2021: Dogecoin hits 70 cents in the run up to Elon Musk’s Saturday Night Live appearance before dropping sharply into the 40-50 cent range after Musk making a joke that Doge is a “hustle” on the show.
October 2021: AMC Theaters announces that it will accept DOGE as a form of payment for its digital gift cards. Dogecoin is trading around 25 cents at this time.
Are we missing any Dogecoin milestones? Leave us a comment or write us at info@brostocks.com to share more for this timeline!
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