Dogecoin pips popular Bitcoin: Know how it started as a joke but is dominating cryptocurrency market now

Dogecoin, which started as a joke or an Internet parody based on a viral dog meme, has skyrocketed to 800% in the last 24 hours, according to Coinbase. Similar to bitcoin, Dogecoin is a digital coin that is mainly used for e-transactions and its meme has a picture of the shiba inu on it. 

Invented by software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer in 2013, the price of Dogecoin saw a mammoth rise after Reddit traders targeted it. "If you want to make Dogecoin a reality, get in touch," said the website. Currently,  Dogecoin stands at a more than $7 billion market cap due to a huge volume of transactions over the past 24 hours.

Tesla founder Elon Musk, had previously tweeted about dogecoin and indicated in April 2019, that it was his “fav cryptocurrency.”

After the rise, it became a meme fest on the internet and the memes surged almost as much as the price of the cryptocurrency did. One user said, "Me dreaming of my #dogecoin hitting $1 while I sleep tonight." Another wrote, "Buy #dogecoin and achieve financial independence by the end of the day."

Reddit users on the forum CryptoCurrency and SatoshiStreetBets discussions referenced the 'WallStreetBets’ efforts to squeeze out Wall Street shops from heavily shorted stocks and urged people to buy into Dogecoin.