Dogecoin prices have continued to stagnate since reaching a peak of more than $0.70 in early May, when the meme coin appeared to bounce back after the crypto market was rocked by China’s sweeping crackdown on Bitcoin mining operations in the country.
While still a favourite among crypto gurus such as Tesla founder Elon Musk, Doge has slipped in popularity among crypto traders since booming in popularity at the start of the year.
As the first meme cryptocurrency to become mainstream, Dogecoin’s appeal has been eclipsed by the flurry of new meme and alt coins flooding the crypto scene – with ‘Dogecoin killer’-coined rival, Shiba Inu coin, going down a storming success with traders.
But will Dogecoin’s price go back up again – and what are current price predictions for Doge?
Here’s what the meme cryptocurrency is, what Doge is worth today and why it’s been dwindling in popularity recently.
What is Dogecoin?
Much like Bitcoin, Dogecoin is an open-source cryptocurrency which can be traded and exchanged across decentralised peer to peer networks between users, with tokens of value reaped as rewards for users operating in lieu of banks or governments to ensure the validity of its transactions.
Paying tribute to the shiba inu ‘doge’ meme circulated far and wide across the internet for years, Dogecoin was created in 2013 as a satirical take on the booming popularity around more traditional coins like Bitcoin and their cult following.
But the coin has come full circle, with it now being taken just as seriously as its crypto competitors after its visibility increased worldwide over recent years.
Where this coin differs to Bitcoin, XRP or Ethereum is that it has spread like wildfire on account of its meme origins and appreciation by Tesla founder and cryptocurrency aficionado Elon Musk.
The irreverent tech billionaire earlier this year sent the crypto market into a tailspin when he announced that Tesla would be suspending Bitcoin payments for its vehicles due to the currency’s considerable environmental impact, and has routinely mocked Bitcoin while praising Dogecoin online and inflating the price of the memecoin.
And the founder of US aerospace company SpaceX also announced last year that he would be launching the first cryptocurrency-funded moon mission, known as DOGE-1, as a Dogecoin-funded CubeSat.
The Dogecoin-funded satellite payload aims to be the first CubeSat to reach space, with SpaceX collaborating with energy and space research development company Geometric Energy Corporation, Unizen and decentralisation incubator ZenX to create DOGE-1.
How much is it worth today?
Dogecoin’s price has remained low since most recently peaking at a price of $0.34 on 28 October, according to Coinbase.
According to Coinbase, Dogecoin is currently trading ten points down on its recent peak at around $0.24 (£0.18) as of 4pm on Tuesday.
This is a far cry from Dogecoin’s all time peak in early May, when the coin’s rapid rise saw it reach a peak of $.0722320 on 8 May.
New alt and meme coin competitors have repeatedly emerged to eclipse Dogecoin’s successes, with ‘Baby Doge’ arriving on the market as the child of the resident memecoin, tipped as a new favourite of Musk for its deflationary status and design to increase its scarcity by avid hodling of the pre-mined coin.
But Dogecoin’s continued price fall has seen fans and investors alike fear for the long-term success of the cryptocurrency.
What did Dogecoin co-founder Jackson Palmer say about crypto?
Unlike his former partner and fellow co-founder Billy Markus, who recently said he invested in Dogecoin for the first time ever to help it recover from June’s crash, Jackson Palmer has shown deep scepticism toward cryptocurrency.
The software engineer teamed up with Markus in 2013 to create Dogecoin as a joke, poking fun at the cult-like fascination with Bitcoin as it soared in visibility and value in the 2010s.
But despite his original intention to use Dogecoin as a means of encouraging greater innovation in the cryptocurrency arena, Palmer announced he would be taking an extended leave of absence from the crypto world in 2015 and criticised its considerably wealthy, white and male composition.
On Wednesday (July 14), Palmer, in a rare reappearance on Twitter, revived such criticisms of the sector.
In a series of tweets, Palmer said that he had no plans to return to cryptocurrency, calling it “an inherently right-wing, hyper-capitalistic technology built primarily to amplify the wealth of its proponents through a combination of tax avoidance, diminished regulatory oversight and artificially enforced scarcity.”
He continued: “The cryptocurrency industry leverages a network of shady business connections, bought influencers and pay-for-play media outlets to perpetuate a cult-like “get rich quick” funnel designed to extract new money from the financially desperate and naive.
“Financial exploitation undoubtedly existed before cryptocurrency, but cryptocurrency is almost purpose built to make the funnel of profiteering more efficient for those at the top and less safeguarded for the vulnerable.”
Palmer’s criticism has sparked a backlash from many within the crypto community who believe it can offer a powerful alternative to traditional financial systems and banking.
Nick Saponaro, co-founder and CIO of the Divi Project, a decentralised payment ecosystem aiming to ‘accelerate the adoption of digital currencies’, is one such figure who takes issue with Palmer’s critique of cryptocurrency as a system controlled by a select group of wealthy and elite individuals.
“All markets are manipulated to some degree,” he said.
“I would argue that crypto is one of the least, especially when considering the stock market manipulation by actors that hold inordinate amounts of power.
“How about the world’s largest companies, like Amazon, effectively paying $0 in taxes? I would argue that the traditional finance system has been co-opted by the elites to benefit their bottom line far more than cryptocurrency has.”
Saponaro continued: “There are so many beautiful outcomes as a result of the technology being built by the developers and business people in this space that are completely ignored by [Palmer’s] argument.
“We’ve seen lives changed, families fed, businesses built, and freedom captured by participating in crypto.”
Will Dogecoin go back up?
Dogecoin price predictions following this continued period of stagnation have seemingly put hopes of the coin finally reaching $1 worth or above anytime soon slightly further out of reach.
The closest the cryptocurrency came to nearing that landmark threshold was seen in early May, before China’s latest moves to stunt the flow of transactions and mining began to shake the market, with this latest bout of volatility adding to rising fears over the long term health and sustainability of the crypto market and whether there’s more instability to come.
Wallet Investor forecasts that Dogecoin’s price could go up to $0.5 within a year and up to $1.511 by 2026, according to estimations of its bullish support.
Other forecasters are more hesitant in their forecasting, predicting that DOGE might not reach $1.2 in value until closer to 2028.
However, the negligibility of meme coins like Dogecoin means that they are an even riskier investment for crypto investors, with much greater volatility in value and less predictability in pricing.
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