Benzinga - One of the most well-known cryptocurrencies remains Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE), a coin started as a joke back in 2013. Over the years, the cryptocurrency has gained a large following, particularly in 2021 when the coin hit all-time highs and became a trending topic on social media.
Here's a look at the history of Dogecoin and how much lucky investors who bought back in 2013 would have now.
What Happened: Dogecoin was created in 2013 by Jackson Palmer and Billy Markus. The coin was meant to be a satirical coin to mock Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC), but over time has gained support from a loyal community.
Palmer bought dogecoin.com and connected with Markus, who had previous experience with altcoins, including making a coin based on the Bells currency in the Animal Crossing video game. The duo made the coin in just a couple hours, with Markus previously saying much of the time on development was spent changing the font of the coin to Comic Sans.
The cryptocurrency was based on the iconic Doge meme that stars Kabosu, a Shiba Inu dog.
A profile for Dogecoin was created on Bitcointalk.org on Dec. 6, 2013. A subreddit for Dogecoin (r/Dogecoin) was created on Dec. 8, 2013. The coin opened for trading on Dec. 15, 2013.
One of the early use cases for the coin was to be used as a tipping bot on Reddit.
The price of Dogecoin went from around $0.0002 to $0.002 in two weeks' time, marking a significant return for early investors.
The coin saw a rise in 2017 alongside other altcoins before falling in price by the end of 2018.
One of the biggest public supporters of Dogecoin over the years has been Tesla CEO Elon Musk. A 2019 Twitter post that elected Musk as the fictional CEO of Dogecoin saw the billionaire declare "Dogecoin might be my fav cryptocurrency."
Musk has tweeted multiple times about Dogecoin since then and even has several of his companies accepting the cryptocurrency as a form of payment. Musk's acquisition of social media platform Twitter, now known as X, has led to several price spikes for Dogecoin, with some believing the coin will be integrated into the platform.
In 2021, Dogecoin hit all-time highs, a move that could have been helped by an appearance by Musk on "Saturday Night Live."
Another vocal supporter of Dogecoin over the years has been billionaire and NBA team owner Mark Cuban. The billionaire disclosed he owned some Dogecoin and had the Dallas Mavericks accept the cryptocurrency for merchandise and tickets in the past.
Retailers and websites began accepting Dogecoin as a form of payment thanks to its popularity. Cryptocurrency exchanges such as Coinbase and eToro added Dogecoin to their platform due to customer demand.
While Dogecoin doesn't trade near its all-time highs set in 2021, many early investors are still enjoying strong returns.
Related Link: How To Buy Dogecoin (DOGE)
Investing $1,000 in Dogecoin: On Dec. 15, 2013, Dogecoin began trading, according to data from Coinmarketcap.
A look at the chart on Coinmarketcap shows a price of $0.0002993 for Dogecoin on Dec. 15, 2013.
An investment of $1,000 could have purchased 3,341,129.30 DOGE at the time.
The investment would be worth $274,807.88 today, based on a price of $0.0823 for Dogecoin at the time of writing.
Dogecoin hit an all-time high of $0.7376 in May 2021. The hypothetical $1,000 investment would have been worth $2,464,416.97 at that time.
"Much Wow" indeed!
Not every cryptocurrency investment will go up in value, and the hypothetical investment was likely realized by very few if any.
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