Dogecoin's Price May Be 39 Cents, but It's Not a Joke

The big cryptocurrency story has been Bitcoin's tumble from a high of around $63,000 less than a week ago to roughly $55,000 Monday. But the underdog's story—we're talking, of course, about Dogecoin and its meteoric rise—has in the same timeframe attracted cheers from many corners of the internet. The cute coin with the Shiba Inu logo has climbed in value from a tiny fraction of a penny to 39 cents as of this writing, with the Wall Street Journal reporting it has seen an 8,000% gain in 2021. That's "more than double the gains on the S&P 500, including dividends, since 1988," it observes. And if Twitter users making #DogeDay trend get their way, the coin will reach 69 cents on April 20, the unofficial holiday for cannabis enthusiasts that USA Today reports Dogecoin lovers want to rebrand as Doge Day.

The cryptocurrency was started as a joke by Jackson Palmer and Billy Markus in 2013, Newsweek reports. But this gentle joke on Bitcoin is functioning like an actual currency and is a favorite of Elon Musk (who apparently also loves 4/20, per Gizmodo). Its market cap of about $50 billion is greater than that of Ford Motor Co., and its climb from a wafer-thin slice of penny to a handful of nickels could be just the beginning. A Reddit user summed it up: "$1 is inevitable. We can mother heckin do this." (More cryptocurrency stories.)