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Tesla Billionaire Elon Musk Spurs ‘Joke’ Bitcoin Rival Dogecoin Higher After Price Suddenly Doubles

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Dogecoin, the memecoin named by Tesla TSLA billionaire Elon Musk as his 'fav' cryptocurrency, has soared over the last few days.

The dogecoin price has doubled so far this week, climbing to never-before-seen highs of around 10 cents and outpacing bitcoin's recent blistering rally.

Musk, whose playful dogecoin-related tweets have helped the "joke" bitcoin rival soar by 6,000% over the last six months, has this morning spurred dogecoin higher, tweeting a GIF of a laughing Shiba Inu—the dog that dogecoin is based on.

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Dogecoin has climbed into the cryptocurrency top ten, as measured by CoinMarketCap, due to its 120% rally this week, giving the combined 130 billion dogecoin tokens in circulation a total value of around $12 billion.

In comparison, bitcoin, by far the biggest cryptocurrency by value, now boasts a market capitalization of almost $1.2 trillion following its massive bull run so far this year.

"The greatest gainer today goes to dogecoin, which has leaped approximately 30% since the morning, briefly topping 9.5 cents a coin," Mati Greenspan, the founder of market analysis outfit Quantum Economics, wrote in a Tuesday email note. "It seems the memes are in total control of this market."


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The bitcoin price, after beginning the year at just under $30,000, has soared to an all-time high of almost $65,000 per bitcoin this week as a bitcoin trading frenzy ahead of the closely-watched market debut of U.S. crypto exchange Coinbase reaches fever-pitch.

"Fear of missing out can be a very strong emotion," Adrian Lowcock, head of personal investing at investment platform Willis Owen, said in emailed comments. "Cryptocurrencies and the technology behind them might offer some potential but prices are extremely volatile and fortunes can just as easily be lost as they can be made."

Almost all other cryptocurrencies are rallying hard ahead of Wednesday's Coinbase IPO, with the entire crypto market reaching a combined value of $2.2 trillion this week—up $200 billion in just a matter of days.

Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency after bitcoin, has added 15% over the last week, while Ripple's XRP has recovered from a sell-off at the turn of the year, doubling in price and climbing to highs not seen in over three years.

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The broad bitcoin and cryptocurrency 2021 rally has been helped by the emergence of long-awaited institutional adoption and support from high-profile investors—including the likes of Musk.

Musk, well-known for his market-moving tweets, last week posted "... going to moon very soon," shortly after the bitcoin price began climbing over the weekend, sparking speculation Musk's rocket company SpaceX could follow Tesla in adding bitcoin to its balance sheet.

On April 1, Musk said his private rocket company SpaceX is going to put a "dogecoin on the literal moon"—sending the price of the meme-based cryptocurrency up 35%.

The dogecoin rally began in late January when stock market traders frustrated by restrictions that were placed on popular meme stocks switched to cryptocurrencies with many piling into dogecoin.

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