A Bitcoin Driven from a Meme Drives the Stock Market Crazy

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A Bitcoin Driven from a Meme Drives the Stock Market Crazy

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Dogecoin, a digital coin that began as a meme, soared in value after a Reddit board discussed making it a cryptocurrency equal to GameStop. Dogecoin was born in 2013 as a response to the famous “doge” meme, which featured a Shiba Inu. It began as a joke but has since developed into a culture.


Although it has been overshadowed by larger cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin and ether, in recent years, SatoshiStreetBets, a group formed on Reddit, has helped it regain popularity. According to Coinmarketcap numbers, this dogecoin's market capitalization (total value) increased by $7.17 billion in just 24 hours. It has an $8.2 billion market value, rendering it the ninth-largest cryptocurrency. 


Dogecoin is one of the first “altcoins,” or cryptocurrencies, which appeared a few years after Satoshi Nakamoto, a pseudonymous figure, first released Bitcoin into the wild. Dogecoin isn't very revolutionary in terms of technology. It is based on the original source code of Bitcoin, like many other early altcoins.


Dogecoin was originally created as a joke to mock cryptocurrencies, but fate is a fan of irony. Dogecoin is better regarded as a cultural product rather than a financial asset. In fact, few people use cryptocurrency as a serious investment or for everyday transactions. Rather, owning Dogecoin entails being a part of meme culture. 


The sudden increase in Dogecoin's price last week makes sense if people think of cryptocurrency as a cultural commodity. The rise came just days after a meme-centric group pushed the stock price of video game retailer GameStop from USD$20 to USD$350 in a matter of days. GameStop, which makes the majority of its money selling video games in stores around the country, saw its stock price rise as much as 1,700% this week, fueled by fans who believe it is unfairly underrated by large investors who had invested billions that it would drop. The stock quickly grew in price as small investors advertised their purchases of the retailer's stock in viral posts on social media, forcing big investors to spend billions of dollars to cover their losses.


This behavior had never been seen before, and it alarmed the world's financial markets. 


Elon Musk stated in an interview, "One particularly interesting aspect of the Reddit forum r/WallStreetBets which coordinated the attack on the hedge fund that had effectively bet on GameStop’s share price falling was how many users were having fun."


It's no surprise that the Dogecoin operation has a similar style; the currency was created with fun in mind from the start.


By: Emilie Chi 

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