SpaceX Founder and Chief Engineer Elon Musk speaks during the Satellite 2020 conference on March 9, 2020 in Washington, DC, United States.
Yasin Ozturk | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
Dogecoin is in another frenzied uptrend and this time it is making a brief contribution to breaking Robinhood’s trading app. An analyst credits Elon Musk’s upcoming Saturday Night Live appearance on May 8 for the latest Spike.
The meme-inspired token rose nearly 30% on Tuesday and more than 11,000% this year.
Dogecoin’s rally first began in February thanks to a series of tweets from Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. An analyst suggests that he is also responsible for the current step.
“Dogecoin is on the rise because many cryptocurrency traders don’t want to miss the excitement that comes from Elon Musk’s hosting of Saturday Night Live,” wrote Edward Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda.
Though it started as a hoax in 2013, Dogecoin has since gained a following that has helped increase the value of the token, thanks in part to celebrities like Musk, Dallas Cubers owner Mark Cuban, Snoop Dogg, and Kiss bassist Gene Simmons.
“If there is enough community for an asset, and that community chooses to effectively create long-term value by reducing the supply cap over time, that could actually represent valuable currency,” said Mike Bucella, general of Blocktower Capital Partner.
“The real value lies in today’s meme-driven culture, and Doge represents the network value of memetics, which can prove to be tremendous. If at some point the DOGE community decides to implement a burn or new supply mechanism through a protocol-hard fork then it has to this value is more likely to be maintained in the long term.
Dogecoin critics note that even proponents of the currency refuse to claim it has inherent value, unlike promoters of currencies like bitcoin and ether. Moya writes that the Dogecoin bubble should have burst by now, “but institutional interest is trying to capitalize on this momentum and this could support further spike.”
Some members of the SNL cast have grumbled on social media about the Mercury manager’s appearance on the show.
