From decrypt by Liz Napolitano
With crypto flying high in 2024, Dogecoin holders are determined to take their multi-million-dollar meme coin to the moon.
And if recent events are any indication, the coin—often showered with attention by billionaire Elon Musk—is already part of the way there.
Dogecoin has had a knockout year, from hitting a three-year-high price to becoming the namesake of a U.S. extra-governmental initiative, and even inspiring new exchange-traded products.
Although its network fielded some technical issues recently, the Shiba Inu-inspired token is still heading into the new year with plenty of momentum.
Dogecoin soared to a three-year high of $0.48 in early December as President-elect Donald Trump and ally Musk stoked positive investor sentiments toward digital assets.
The digital currency peaked at an all-time high of $0.73 in May 2021, and had spent the following years well below that mark until its recent resurgence.
Dogecoin's price began pumping a couple months ago as self-styled crypto champion Trump blazed a path towards retaking the White House. His victory on Election Day sparked a broader crypto market enthusiasm that has benefited meme coins, including Dogecoin.
The token has also rallied multiple times after Musk, in a series of posts on X (formerly known as Twitter), referenced the digital currency alongside a proposed government agency aimed at cutting bureaucratic spending.
Shortly after Election Day, Trump announced that Elon Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy would lead an extra-governmental U.S. department that shares a name with Dogecoin.
The Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, aims to slash U.S. government spending, reducing the federal budget deficit. Musk teased the initiative for weeks before it was officially announced, much to the excitement of Dogecoin holders.
"We will also have a leaderboard for [the] most insanely dumb spending of your tax dollars,” Musk said in November on X. “This will be both extremely tragic and extremely entertaining."