Wow much coin: A parody cryptocurrency just broke US$2 billion for its market cap
The rise of Dogecoin and other bitcoin descendants is due to the fact that they’re perceived as being ‘cheap’ compared to bitcoin or ether
By Saheli Roy Choudhury
A cryptocurrency that was created as a parody and named after an internet meme now has a market value of more than $2 billion.
Dogecoin crossed the US$2 billion barrier around two weeks after it first touched the US$1 billion level on Christmas day. The digital currency traded as high as US$0.018773, putting its market capitalisation at US$2.12 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.
Data from the cryptocurrency site showed dogecoin’s current market value is about $1.98 billion — as of Jan. 8, 1:00 p.m. HK/SIN — and traded at US$0.017535 per token. That’s a roughly 69 per cent increase compared to levels seen during Friday’s Asian trading session.
Last month, the virtual coin rose more than 400 per cent and briefly topped US$0.0107 in late December.
As of Monday, there were a total of 43 cryptocurrencies with a market cap above $1 billion. The largest of those, bitcoin, traded at US$15,768.34 as of 1:15 p.m. HK/SIN, according to industry site CoinDesk. That put its market cap at around US$264 billion.