Dogecoin, the tongue-in-cheek cryptocurrency featuring a Shiba Inu dog as a mascot, briefly touched a record on Monday after billionaire Elon Musk, rapper Snoop Dogg and Kiss bassist Gene Simmons tweeted about it.
The token climbed to a peak of about 8.2 US cents and a market capitalisation of $10.5-billion during Asian trading hours on Monday before pulling back, according to pricing data from CoinGecko. The coin was ranked among the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market value, the figures showed.
Dogecoin’s surprising social media-fuelled rally is just one instance of the revival in cryptocurrencies over the past year. The two biggest tokens, bitcoin and ether, both scaled fresh peaks in recent weeks amid a debate about whether they’re blipping onto the radar of long-term investors or being lifted by waves of speculative buying in a world awash with stimulus.
Bitcoin was trading at about $38 730 as of 1.37pm in Hong Kong, after surging to almost $41 000 over the weekend. Ether has dipped from an all-time high amid the start of trading in CME Group futures contracts.
Musk, the richest person in the world, has tweeted multiple times about dogecoin recently. Snoop Dogg pinned a tweet with “Snoop Doge”. Simmons, a member of the American rock band Kiss, pointed out how much people could have made if they had purchased dogecoin earlier.
Speaking on social audio app Clubhouse on 1 February, Musk said he’s a supporter of bitcoin and thinks it’s “a good thing”. He added that his comments on dogecoin were meant as jokes. — Reported by Eric Lam, (c) 2021 Bloomberg LP
