Dogecoin started as a joke – an internet meme brought to life as a cryptocurrency. Created in 2013 by software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer, the duo devised Dogecoin as a lighthearted way to introduce more people to blockchain and cryptocurrency. They adopted the popular Doge meme, which features a Shiba Inu dog with comically broken English phrases, as a mascot.
Unlike Bitcoin, which has a capped supply and aims to become “digital gold”, Dogecoin was designed to have abundant tokens and encourage spending. There are currently over 132 billion DOGE tokens in circulation, with new blocks mined every minute adding 5 billion DOGE per year. Such inflationary design is counterintuitive for a store of value asset, but aligns with Dogecoin’s goal to be a friendly on-ramp to crypto and digital cash for internet content creators.
The meme coin label, lack of use cases, and inflationary model led many cryptocurrency enthusiasts to dismiss Dogecoin in the early years. Yet the community that organically formed around Dogecoin valued its welcoming culture that didn’t take itself too seriously. They used DOGE to tip content creators on Reddit and Twitter, fund NASCAR sponsorships, and even send the Jamaican Olympic bobsled team to the 2014 Winter Olympics.
Elon Musk became an early fan of Dogecoin, later calling it “the people’s crypto”. When the Tesla CEO tweeted about Dogecoin in 2021, it kickstarted a legendary rally. The price of DOGE shot up 20,000% in less than 9 months, minting millionaires from early investors and introducing mainstream audiences to the meme coin phenomenon.
Of course, what goes up must come down. The speculative fervour couldn’t be sustained forever and many latecomers ended up buying the top. Dogecoin eventually crashed over 85% from its peak along with the wider crypto market downturn in 2022-2023 known as the “crypto winter”.
Yet like a phoenix rising from the ashes, Dogecoin and other meme coins found renewed interest among investors in 2023. The Ethereum blockchain merge and subsequent price surge spilled over to benefit associated tokens. The long bear market also washed out low conviction holders, building a base for the next growth cycle.
The biggest value proposition for Dogecoin remains its branding and familiarity. Internet communities have rallied around the Shiba Inu mascot for nearly a decade, while Elon Musk’s repeated endorsements give it unmatched mainstream reach. The Dallas Mavericks basketball team accepts DOGE for tickets and merchandise, further cementing its position as the de facto meme coin.
Of course Dogecoin faces plenty of competition. Floki Inu, Baby Doge, Samoyed Coin and other canine-themed projects have attempted to replicate its success. Most ended up as pump and dumps. The bigger challenger is Shiba Inu Coin (SHIB), which brands itself the “Dogecoin killer”. Launched in August 2020, SHIB briefly surpassed Dogecoin as the largest meme coin in 2021 during its parabolic rally. Unlike DOGE, Shiba Inu has an ecosystem of tokens and decentralized applications being developed to capture a slice of Ethereum’s DeFi and NFT activity.
Whether petty rivalries or legit innovation efforts, Dogecoin enjoys clear first-mover advantage and synergy with Elon Musk’s business empire. Tesla accepting DOGE as payment has long been the meme coin community’s holy grail. It would fulfill the promise laid out in Dogecoin’s original 2013 source code comments:
“To the moon!”
