Dogecoin (DOGE) has seen a massive surge over the past few weeks, significantly outperforming Bitcoin (BTC) and other major altcoins. The meme coin has surged 170% in the past two weeks, a staggering 250% in the past five weeks, and 95% in the past five days alone. This rapid rise has made Dogecoin one of the best performing digital assets in the current market landscape.
Why is Dogecoin outperforming Bitcoin?
Michael P. Regan, head of Bloomberg’s global cryptocurrency team and former senior market editor, shed light on this phenomenon in an interview with Bloomberg Crypto. Responding to traditional investors’ skepticism about Dogecoin’s fundamentals, Regan acknowledged the token’s unexpected resilience.
“I think the staying power of Dogecoin has surprised everybody,” Regan said. “When you talk about fundamental values, you know, it’s a bit of a philosophical discussion when it comes to cryptocurrencies. But one of the things that’s really interesting about Dogecoin is that it’s actually very cheap to trade, much cheaper than Bitcoin.”
Regan highlighted real-world use cases that contribute to Dogecoin’s value proposition. “We have stories — you do find people using it for remittances, you know, people sending money back to their parents in Venezuela. It’s much cheaper to use Dogecoin than most other cryptocurrencies,” he explained.
In addition, he mentioned the increasing acceptance of Dogecoin in daily transactions: "There are even people developing payment applications. You know, there is a pizza shop in New York, Williamsburg Pizza, that accepts Dogecoin.
Despite its origins as a joke, Regan believes there’s more to Dogecoin than meets the eye. “It started as a joke. You know, it still makes me laugh to think about it, but I think there’s something a little more serious there than most people realize,” he concluded.
The Elon Musk Effect
When asked about Elon Musk’s influence on Dogecoin’s recent rally, Regan didn’t mince words. “I think this rally that we’ve seen is almost entirely related to Elon Musk,” he asserted. Musk is a well-known Dogecoin advocate who has a history of influencing its price through public statements and social media activity.
"Elon Musk has been a huge champion of Dogecoin lately. I think, you know, just for the memes - the guy loves funny memes on the internet. Dogecoin was the meme coin before X and Twitter, you know," Regan commented.
He highlighted the speculative nature of memecoin and Musk’s important role in it. “It’s hard to know exactly, you know, whether this is how much Musk appreciates it. But regardless, you know, cryptocurrency is speculation. He loves it,” Regan said.
Reagan highlighted the impact of Musk's involvement, concluding, "It's up almost 200 percent since the election," referring to the hype created by the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
At press time, DOGE is trading at $0.38698.
