Hey everyone,
Last week Elon gave another massive statement of support for Dogecoin during an unscripted exchange in Berlin.
He once again framed Dogecoin as “the people’s crypto”, a title which contrasts Doge with the broader crypto scene dominated by conspicuous consumption and abstract techno-economic theory.
Let’s take a look at why Doge’s humble brand stands out from the rest of the crypto pack—and sets it up to ascend to its inevitable role as the future digital currency of the world.
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Last week, a clip of Elon speaking at Tesla’s Giga Berlin factory sent shockwaves across 𝕏.
The video began with a questioner in the crowd asking, “When can you buy a Tesla with Dogecoin?”
Elon’s response was better than even the most optimistic Dogecoin holder might’ve hoped:
“At some point I think we should enable that” [Doge for Tesla vehicles]
“Dogecoin to the moon”
“Doge is the people's crypto so I will support it, because lots of rich people were supporting Bitcoin, but if the people on the [Tesla factory] line want me to support Doge, I will support Doge, so Doge is for you”
As the clip went viral, tons of attention was heaped on his plans to sell Tesla vehicles for Dogecoin.
However, the secret to Dogecoin’s success lies in another part of Elon’s remarks: its unique branding as the people’s crypto.
Doge’s brand as a cryptocurrency for regular folks is a zig where the rest of crypto is zags.
Crypto is widely associated with conspicuous displays of material wealth.
Whenever Bitcoin starts pumping, crypto bros emerge like cicadas from the soil to proselytize about digital scarcity, Austrian economics, and lambos.
This very online crypto machismo is attractive to certain types of people—mostly young American males—but tends to alienate the general public.
The thing is, crypto bros are correct in a very real way: Bitcoin and a few other cryptocurrencies are a massive technical upgrade over our current monetary system.
Dollars and other fiat currencies are designed to lose value over time—this is the reason everything has been getting so expensive lately—while Bitcoin is programmed to gain value over time.
Bitcoin’s unstoppable rise is as much a sign of fatal flaws in the global financial system as anything else.
However, sometimes the messenger gets in the way of the message.
Most folks don’t want to learn about currency debasement from a 20-year-old millionaire flogging $70k Bitcoins, even if he’s right.
This principle is exemplified by two red hot crypto memes of late: Bitcoin maximalist Michael Saylor’s interaction with a reporter, and the out-of-nowhere rise of crypto influencer NFT Nick.
Saylor is head of MicroStrategy, a software company that started buying large amounts of Bitcoin in 2020 and hasn’t stopped.
As soon as he took the orange pill, Saylor started making press rounds advocating for institutional adoption of Bitcoin as a digital store of value.
Earlier this month, he spoke with a Yahoo reporter, who pressed him on his claim that he never planned to sell his Bitcoin back for dollars. Saylor responded, “people that use fiat currency [like dollars] as a store of value, there’s a name for them: we call them poor.”
Believe it or not, the clip was widely celebrated by Bitcoiners, who turned it into a series of memes.
In truth, Saylor was making a sophisticated point about how governments devalue their own currencies through inflation, which hurts lower and middle classes disproportionately.
Upper classes are able to shelter themselves from inflation by storing their wealth in assets like real estate, art, commodities, and business equity, which naturally rise in price when currency is devalued.
Common folks, on the other hand, usually store their wealth in cash because they need to be able to spend what they have at a moment’s notice. As a result, they end up taking inflation on the chin when the dollars they saved are suddenly worth less.
Bitcoin is a novel innovation because it allows democratic access to an inflation-proof store of value for anyone with a smart phone.
Unfortunately, most regular folks who encounter the Saylor clip will hear "We call them poor" and immediately think, Bitcoin’s not for me.
If Saylor is an occasionally polarizing figure on the crypto scene, he doesn’t hold a candle to Nick O’Neill, better known by his online persona NFT Nick.
NFT Nick has taken 𝕏 by storm this month in a series of viral videos in which he flaunts his wealth, mocks his haters, and urges followers to “Choose Rich”.
Several of NFT Nick’s videos have been community noted on the grounds that the wealth he is displaying is not actually real, but even getting fact checked hasn’t slowed his rise.
Nick’s schtick is to goad viewers into hating him and then mock them for having hated. It has proven a remarkably succesful formula for converting jealousy into attention.
Something about NFT Nick is hard to look away from, and honestly his performance art is actually kind of funny.
On an individual level, Nick’s adventures in crypto seem to have granted him at least temporary access to the trappings of wealth. But it’s harder to argue that his success is good for cryptocurrency adoption on the whole.
Regular people considering dabbling in crypto will look at Nick’s videos and instinctively recoil. He is so deliberately, quintessentially obnoxious that it makes you wonder if some institutional crypto buyer like BlackRock is paying him to scare the public away so it can accumulate Bitcoin more cheaply.
Like Saylor, Nick’s antics have turned him into a (less admiring, but still viral) meme.
The clips of Saylor and NFT Nick are great examples of crypto 1.0: a niche online community of ambitious bros vying for a shot at life-changing wealth.
Crypto 1.0 has been phenomenally succesful on its own terms. In just 15 years, the crypto market has bootstrapped its way from nothing to nearly three trillion dollars.
But the formula that got crypto from point A to point B won’t get it from B to C.
To achieve mass adoption, digital money needs its branding to appeal to a global population.
Conspicuous consumption or economic theory aren’t the tools to make this happen, but memes are. This is where Dogecoin comes in.
Doge is crypto 2.0: a global community from all walks of life using blockchain to transact over the internet while sharing cute and hilarious memes.
Dogecoin possesses several qualifications that make it perfectly suited to lead crypto’s next phase of adoption:
Dogs are a universal archetype across various cultures and time periods, and an anti-elitist pet owned by rich and poor alike
Doge is an iconic online meme, equal parts wholesome and ironic, with more than a decade of virality under its belt
Folks want to own a single unit of something, not a fraction: Doge’s price makes it possible for everyone to own several Dogecoins, while Bitcoin’s $70k price tag puts whole coin ownership out of reach for most people
Dogecoin’s cheap fees make it better suited for small daily transactions than other leading cryptos like Bitcoin and Ethereum
The goal of every cryptocurrency community is to bring new users into the fold.
To increase adoption, crypto 1.0 has hyper-targeted young American males with images of conspicuous consumption and technical arguments about blockchain and economics.
This strategy been successful beyond most people’s wildest dreams, to the point where Wall Street’s largest financial institutions are now forced to gobble up Bitcoin to avoid getting left behind.
However, most of the world still doesn’t use digital money. According to Grok, only 4.2% of the global population—336M out of 8B people—own some form of cryptocurrency. Getting from 4.2% to 99% requires a new strategy.
Dogecoin is poised to build on Bitcoin’s success as a digital currency, leveraging meme virality, Elon’s support, and much wow cute factor to make crypto accessible to the masses..
More than any other cryptocurrency, Doge is designed to circulate as digital cash, spreading joy and memes along the way. Where Bitcoin is about math and lambos, Doge is about hearts and minds.
Crypto is fast approaching the precipice of mass adoption. Someday—maybe someday soon—the people of the world will Choose Doge.
What do you think: Is Dogecoin the inevitable choice as the people’s crypto of the world?
St Patty’s Doge
Yesterday, Elon posted a photo of his Shiba Inu Floki in St. Patrick’s Day regalia.
Holiday photos of Floki have become a Dogecoin community tradition. This one hints that Dogecoin is the proverbial pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Can you spot at least two Dogecoins in the photo?
Memes of the Week
Thank You!
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Disclaimer: This is not financial advice and I am not a financial advisor. The article above references an opinion for entertainment purposes only and it is not investment advice. Always assume that the author of the article is actively trading and that the opinions expressed may be biased towards the author’s holdings. Do your own research and consult with a licensed financial adviser before making any investment decision. Do not treat any opinion expressed in this newsletter as a specific inducement to make a particular investment. Content, news, research, tools, and securities symbols are for educational and illustrative purposes only and do not imply a recommendation or solicitation to buy or sell a particular security or cryptocurrency or to engage in any particular investment strategy. The information provided is not warranted as to completeness or accuracy and is subject to change without notice. The projections or other information regarding the likelihood of various investment outcomes are hypothetical in nature, are not guaranteed for accuracy or completeness, do not reflect actual investment results and are not guarantees of future results. All investments involve risk, losses may exceed the principal invested, and the past performance of a security, industry, sector, market, cryptocurrency, or financial product does not guarantee future results or returns. Dogecoin is a speculative and highly volatile asset susceptible to pump-and-dump schemes.
At the time of publication, Dogecoin is around $0.15 per coin.