Dogecoin rallies 400%, retreats

For a cryptocurrency created as a joke, Dogecoin finds itself in some serious company.

After a 400 percent rally in the past week, the total value of all circulating Dogecoins in the world briefly rose to as much as $50 billion, according to data provider CoinMarketCap.com. The digital token later retreated by about 20 percent Tuesday, reducing its market value by around $10 billion from the high.

The surge had made it bigger than the market cap of Ford Motor Co. and Kraft Heinz Co. — and nearly equal to Twitter Inc., the platform where Elon Musk and Mark Cuban have promoted the Shiba Inuthemed meme coin.

No one thinks these bluechip stocks are all that comparable to Dogecoin, a fringe asset with no real purpose beyond being a joke on social media. But the similarity of their market values underscores the boom in cryptocurrencies that’s taken Wall Street by storm.

It’s all part of the dizzying trajectory for Dogecoin, which has delighted followers of so-called alt coins, but dismayed some crypto enthusiasts who worry that it’s only adding to volatility and detracting from its more useful endeavors, like decentralized finance.

Dogecoin prices have rallied recently, with fans rallying behind the #DogeDay hashtag to celebrate April 20, or 4/20, known in cannabis culture as a day for smoking marijuana. Prices pulled back to around 31 cents on Tuesday, according to CoinGecko.com.