A friend messaged me a week ago to tell me they had bought Dogecoin. My eyebrows rose slightly, although it was a wet weekend, so buying DOGE was probably a form of indoor entertainment. It may also appeal to dog lovers: the Shiba Inu is pretty cute compared to the symbols all the other altcoins use. I mean, if there was a Peppa Pig token, I expect my youngest would be begging me to buy it.
Elon Musk (yes, him again) did a lot for DOGE by calling it ‘the people’s crypto’ and tweeting that SpaceX would put a literal Dogecoin on the moon. Plus, Mark Cuban told Forbes that Dogecoin was “the best entertainment for your buck” and noted that he had bought some Dogecoin for his son. There, you see – it’s entertaining and it has the dog!
Still, let’s not forget the say about he who laughs first! Dogecoin has been soaring: it’s up more than 300% over the past month — and it has surged more than 10,000% in the last year. That’s remarkable, but what can you do with it?
You need a BitPay card
BitPay’s Mastercard now supports DOGE. So, if you have a BitPay card you can now use the Shiba Inu-inspired currency to make purchases online or in stores. BitPay has also added support for the Apple Wallet, so you can store your BitPay card in your iPhone and fund Apple Pay purchases with crypto, including DOGE. Sadly for some, BitPay is only available in the USA.
The downside of Dogecoin
Nobody else seems to be remotely interested in DOGE. Coinbase won’t list it, which is very important, because Coinbase has a more stringent vetting processing than many exchanges. The Motley Fool says, “Dogecoin’s absence underscores management’s lack of confidence in its long-term potential. And given Coinbase’s scale, that’s a serious problem.”
Dogecoin hasn’t made the cut with PayPal either. Its recently launched Checkout with Crypto, allows consumers to fund purchases with cryptocurrency, and with the size of its user base, the absence of Dogecoin is a blow to the altcoin’s owners.
The problem for Dogecoin is that its utility doesn’t match its popularity, and while it has made huge gains thanks to its celebrity followers, such as Gene Simmons and Snoop Dogg, as well as Musk, there is no guarantee this level of excitement around it will continue.
It’s basically a ‘fun buy’, and there is nothing wrong with that, just don’t expect too much from it.