Dogecoin has its day as latest ‘meme’ craze

NEW YORK — Dogecoin, the digital currency advertised as the one “favored by Shiba Inus worldwide,” is having its day.

Fans of the cryptocurrency are touting April 20, long an unofficial holiday for marijuana devotees, as “Doge Day” and imploring each other to get its value up to $1. That may not sound like much, particularly when compared against the $50,000 or $60,000 that a bitcoin is worth, depending on the day. But it would be an astonishing ascent from the roughly half of a cent that a Dogecoin was fetching at the start of the year.

Dogecoin, which is pronounced dohj-coin, has already leaped to roughly 36 cents, up more than 7,000% for 2021 so far. That towers over the roughly 10% return for the U.S. stock market, which itself is getting criticism for rising too high. Collectively, dogecoins have a total market value of about $46 billion, according to Coindesk. That puts it in the same neighborhood as Ford Motor Co. and Chipotle Mexican Grill.

Supporters of Dogecoin are trying to help it shed its image as a joke cryptocurrency and get it seen as a way to make fast and easy transactions, though few retailers are accepting it so far.

It’s also attracting buyers who want to get in on the next “meme” investment after watching the stock of Gamestop suddenly soar more than 1,600% in January. That surge was triggered by a band of smaller-pocketed investors communicating online, resulting in lifechanging profits for those who timed it right. And Dogecoin buyers are now using some of the same slogans, promising to take its price “to the moon,” for example.