Doge Is More Than a Meme Coin
THIS Is Why Doge Stands Apart From The Rest of the Crypto Pack
Hey everyone,
Crypto stayed hot this week with Bitcoin continuing to smash new highs.
As a result, crypto hype has returned to 𝕏 at a level not seen since 2021. March has witnessed a flood of viral posts about crypto trading and trendy new meme coins.
The added attention has spurred a debate within the Dogecoin community about what makes Doge different from other projects.
Let’s take a look at the speculative mania surrounding crypto, and why Dogecoin’s utility as real money makes it stand out from the rest of the pack.
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Crypto has been on a tear in 2024.
Powered Wall Street’s Bitcoin ETFs, Bitcoin spent the past week hovering around $69k while logging its highest daily and weekly close ever.
The feeling that we’re so back hasn't been this strong since late 2021, if ever.
Crypto’s return to the spotlight has been accompanied by a surge of content about trading, and a flotilla of new meme coins.
This content has filtered into Dogecoin community on 𝕏. The flurry of trading charts and trending coins has elicited debate within the DogeArmy.
Some Dogecoin-themed accounts regularly post about trading Dogecoin, while others emphasize Dogecoin’s utility as digital cash and advocate for holding/spending Doge.
The two approaches offer distinctly different ways of looking at the phenomenon of Dogecoin.
Especially if you are new to Doge, it’s worth taking the time to understand the ideas behind each perspective.
Crypto traders generally practice two strategies when it comes to Doge.
The first is to buy at a lower dollar price and then sell for a higher dollar price, with the goal of acquiring more dollars. For this trader, Dogecoin’s volatility is an opportunity to acquire more fiat currency.
Another trading strategy is to buy Dogecoin at a lower dollar price, sell for a higher price, and then wait till the price of Doge goes down again to buy back in—known as accumulating. For this trader, Dogecoin’s volatility is an opportunity to acquire more Dogecoin.
The main thing to know about trading is that it is extremely difficult to do profitably over the long haul.
When markets are going up, as in the last few weeks, making money can feel easy. As the saying goes, in a bull market everyone is a genius.
In truth, most markets are manipulated to some degree, and crypto is no different.
The explosion in chart content over the last few weeks belies how insanely difficult it is to predict price movements over time.
Price often makes its really big move up when someone with lots of money and power—a whale—decides to make it so.
Usually, this happens after the whales have extracted as much wealth from smaller retail traders as possible. As with any casino, the crypto trading game has been engineered so the house almost always wins.
The same precautions apply to meme coins, which are being hyped aggressively on 𝕏 during the latest rally.
When it comes to other meme coins, it’s worth remembering that Dogecoin was created to parody crypto’s speculative frenzy.
Doge creator Billy Markus described the crypto scene when he made Dogecoin in 2013: “I found that there was a huge market with new coins coming out daily, and at times hourly, all touting how they were going to become worth zillions and take over the galaxy."
Back then, Billy fused blockchain technology with the white-hot Doge meme in a lighthearted attempt to make fun of other cryptocurrencies.
The fact that Dogecoin ended up taking off as a real form of money with an authentic community is maybe the most ironic thing about it.
The crypto frenzy parodied by Doge in 2013 still exists today: a cottage industry of meme coins have attempted to replicate Doge’s lightning in a bottle.
Most of these meme coins are marketed as trading vehicles for acquiring some other type of money like dollars, with the implicit idea that at the end of the day you’d rather have dollars than anything else.
Doge is different because it isn’t merely a vehicle for acquiring more money. Rather, Dogecoin is money, something that no other meme coin can claim.
The classic meme “1 Doge = 1 Doge” captures the idea that Doge’s innermost value is not connected to its dollar price.
Fixating too much on price misses the point of Doge: whether a Dogecoin is worth a penny or a dollar, its truest value will always be one Dogecoin.
Like many longstanding memes, “1 Doge = 1 Doge” started out as an ironic joke, but has aged into wisdom over time.
Today, the meme is invaluable for navigating treacherous and volatile crypto markets with aplomb, reminding people to find joy in Dogecoin regardless of its ever-fluctuating dollar value.
So if Dogecoin isn’t best measured by its dollar price, then how do you quantify its value?
Last week, Dogecoin developer Timothy Stebbing offered one answer: Dogecoin’s true value is its utility to the world.
In a post, he suggested that Dogecoin is most useful to the world as a digital Medium of Exchange—a way to quickly and cheaply move value across the Internet.
His reference to the “evil central banking hegemon” is worth considering in this context.
Dogecoin is a form of money that exists independently from banks and governments, which inflate fiat currencies and destroy wealth of regular people everywhere.
At its best, Dogecoin is a fun, ironic Internet currency that’s also capable of disintermediating big money institutions, allowing regular people to transact without control by rapacious governments or banks.
This balance between absurdly silly and profoundly serious is part of what makes Dogecoin a one-of-a-kind phenomenon.
Dogecoin co-creator Billy Markus has offered his own view of Dogecoin’s usefulness to the world.
In 2021, he wrote that the Doge community can be “a force for good” by embodying “joy, kindness, learning, giving, empathy, fun, community, inspiration, creativity, generosity, silliness, absurdity.”
This particular vibe makes Dogecoin different from every other meme coin, cryptocurrency, fiat currency, or financial asset.
Elon has also endorsed the idea that Dogecoin is money through both his actions and posts, most notably by accepting it for merch at Tesla, tunnel fare at the Boring Company, and a satellite launch at SpaceX.
In several posts, he’s shared his own strategy of holding and spending, but not trading, Dogecoin:
In May 2021, he wrote, “I haven’t & won’t sell any Doge.”
Two months later, he praised his son’s diamond hands: “Lil X is hodling his Doge like a champ. Literally never said the word ‘sell’ even once!
In 2022, he reiterated his Dogecoin strategy, “I still own & won’t sell my Bitcoin, Ethereum or Doge fwiw.”
In recent days, he's reinforced these ideas.
At the start of this month, he liked a post that said, “Put ‘Never Sold a Single Dogecoin’ on my gravestone.”
A week later, he highlighted a subtle “1 Doge = 1 Doge” meme.
At the end of the day, everyone is free to make their own choices about money, investments, speculation, and the rest.
Trading and speculating can be fun, but also come with significant downside risks that should be well understood.
If history is a guide, hundreds of meme coins will pop up and disappear this crypto cycle, taking investors’ money with them on the way out the door.
Few if any are likely to stand the test of time or enjoy widespread adoption as digital cash.
Elon has said that Dogecoin is an “unstoppable financial vehicle that’s going to take over the world.” At its best, Dogecoin represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make dog money the currency of the Internet while challenging the legacy monetary system at its core.
The things that make Dogecoin truly special are unrelated to trading or speculating. Doge has lasted more than decade by bringing real value to people’s lives as a source of joy, an Internet tipping currency, and, increasingly, a form of real money exchangeable for goods and services.
Whether you choose to engage the speculative dance or simply revel in the joy of a digital currency with a wagging tail, remember that Dogecoin is more than just another crypto coin—it's a movement, a dream, and a reminder that sometimes, the most unexpected things can make the biggest impact.
Memes of the Week
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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 $0.17 per coin.
