Dogecoin, a cyrptucurrency that started out as a joke back in 2013, hit a new market cap high of $2 billion over the weekend.
Dogecoin wasn’t able to maintain that new high and is now sitting closer to $1.7 billion. The rise to a $2 billion market cap comes as a surprise to the developers behind the virtual currency, which hasn’t been in active development for years.
“It says a lot about the state of the cryptocurrency space in general that a currency with a dog on it which hasn’t released a software update in over 2 years has a $1B+ market cap,” Jackson Palmer, the creator of Dogecoin, said last week before the virtual coin hit the $2 million market cap.
Palmer’s original intention was simply to create a parody of bitcoin based on a popular internet meme back in 2013. He and his team expected the virtual currency to dwindle and fade with their lack of updates. However, the surge of interest in virtual currencies in 2017 kept the online coin going strong, reports Ars Technica.
While Palmer doesn’t sound too enthused about the rise of Dodgecoin, other developers behind the cryptocurrency have a different opinion. Patrick Lodder, one of those developers, said that it shows a virtual currency doesn’t require “shiny features or a ton of innovation,” to see a boom.
The recent rise in Dogecoin is likely connected to investors that are hoping to get their hands on a cheap alternative to bitcoin. The virtual currency rose in value greatly over the last year and many investors may be hoping to find a cheaper one that will experience a similar rise in price.
As of this writing, William White did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
