DOGE soars 80% on the day to become 10th largest crypto by market cap

Dogecoin (DOGE), the notorious meme-like cryptocurrency that continues to invite both affectionate hype and thinly-concealed derision, has posted some of the highest gains in the cryptocurrency market this week.

As of the time of writing, the cryptocurrency is trading at around $0.137 — up an eye-popping 86% over the past 24 hours and over 122% over the past seven days. Its rally has secured a place for the coin i the top 10 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, according to CoinMarketCap data.

DOGE’s steep rise reflects the extremely bullish climate in the wider cryptocurrency markets at present: Today’s Nasdaq listing of major American cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase’s COIN stock has further fed into the excitement, contributing to record-breaking rallies for both Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) this week. 

Yet the “joke” coin’s parabolic price moves also potentially reflect the consistent endorsement of the coin by high-profile celebrities such as Elon Musk, Snoop Dogg, Gene Simmons and others. Musk’s role in raising the profile of the coin was so conspicuous that it even sparked rumors in February this year of a possible investigation by United States securities regulators into his possible influence on Dogecoin’s price.

The coin has gathered followers in all sorts of corners of the media, sports and entertainment spheres. In a tweet posted on Wednesday, Mark Cuban noted that The Dallas Mavericks’ merchandise store has seen a 550% increase in transactions in DOGE over the past month. “We have now sold more than 122k Doge in merchandise,” he revealed. Already in early March, Cuban claimed the basketball team merch store had become the “largest Dogecoin merchant in the world.”

In a further sign of the health of its fanbase, r/Dogecoin was the third-most active crypto-related group on Reddit earlier this month, trailing only behind the prominent r/CryptoCurrency and r/Bitcoin groups, according to research from Messari’s Mira Christanto.