The blue bird has returned, driving the price of Doge down by a total of 19.5% since last week.
Last week, Musk-led Twitter changed the little blue bird logo to an image of the Doge Shiba Inu dog. It came and went without explanation, but the initial change sent the price of Doge soaring by 30%.
At the time of writing, Dogecoin is trading for $0.0821 – a 8.7% lower than yesterday and a 19.5% lower than last week’s high of $0.102 recorded on April 3rd.
There are many theories as to why the logo changed to Doge, with the most popular relating to the $258 billion lawsuit currently open against Musk. The complaint accuses Musk of using his status as world’s richest man to “operate and manipulate the Dogecoin Pyramid Scheme for profit, exposure and amusement.”
Musk and his lawyers asked the judge to dismiss the lawsuit, stating that Musk’s tweets are too silly and innocuous to legitimise a fraud claim (for example: “Dogecoin Rulz”). The lawyers also added that Dogecoin doesn’t qualify as a security.
Others theorise that the logo change hinted at the possibility of Dogecoin becoming the payment network of Twitter one day, with Musk having hinted at it on various occasions:
Let’s take a look at a brief history of Dogecoin, the first meme coin.
Dogecoin was first created in 2013 by software developers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer. The currency was inspired by the popular “Doge” internet meme, which features a Shiba Inu dog accompanied with bizarre, broken english phrases that always start with “so”, “such”, “many”, “much”, and “very”.
(Fun fact: The real Doge dog is called Kabuso, and you can see her Twitter account here.)
Initially created as a joke mocking the cryptocurrency movement, Dogecoin gained popularity on social media platforms like Reddit, and its value began to rise. It uses a proof-of-work consensus mechanism, and its price peaked at $0.74 in 2021.
The total market cap of Dogecoin now sits at $11.5 billion.
Elon Musk has been instrumental in sustaining interest in recent years. Musk first declared Dogecoin as his “fav cryptocurrency” in 2019, and he cemented this during his Saturday Night Sketch in 2021. Musk-led Twitter pumped Doge by 30% by changing the logo to Doge, the price has now crawled back down by nearly 20% since it reverted back to the original blue bird.
In the ongoing Dogecoin lawsuit, Musk’s lawyers stated: “There is nothing unlawful about tweeting words of support for, or funny pictures about, a legitimate cryptocurrency that continues to hold a market cap of nearly $10 billion.”
It’s the first time Doge has been implicated with the SEC, so time will tell how the result of the lawsuit will impact the price.
Disclaimer: CryptoPlug does not recommend that any cryptocurrency should be bought, sold, or held by you. Do conduct your own due diligence and consult your financial advisor before making any investment decisions.
