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Bitcoin and Dogecoin are skyrocketing thanks to meme investors and Elon Musk

Update: The price of Bitcoin hit an all-time high on Monday (February 9) thanks to Tesla’s $1.5 million investment.

After a week that saw GameStop stocks become a battleground between retail and hedge fund investors, Bitcoin, Dogecoin, and other cryptocurrencies seem to be the next big success story.

Before we talk about the price of Bitcoin and Dogecoin, you need to know that this week, money talked. GameSpot (GME) stocks became the focus of a David vs. Goliath battle between Reddit-organised retail investors and hedge funds who were trying to short the dying business’s stock value, effectively stealing an easy financial win from a score of millionaire investors and reallocating it to the people.

Now, apparently emboldened by the regular Joe’s newfound power to cause seismic shifts in the stock market, cryptocurrencies are enjoying a spectacular rise in value as once again, online communities join together to enhance their value.

elon musk bitcoin dogecoin

Bitcoin, Elon’s not-so-new toy

Bitcoin is a household name by now. The poster child for cryptocurrency at large, Bitcoin practically tops the list of things you should have purchased in bulk decades ago (right alongside Pokémon cards). Shortly after its introduction, a single Bitcoin was valued around $1, whereas recently the value has charted as high as $54,000 AUD.

The latest news in the world of Bitcoin is that billionaire tech daddy and the world’s richest man Elon Musk caused a noticeable market shift by simply adding ‘#bitcoin’ to his Twitter bio.

The Tesla CEO has long been an active spokesperson for Bitcoin, even going so far as to say he’ll never turn down being paid in the currency. This seemingly small action, however, has had real consequences, raising Bitcoin prices from $42,000 AUD to a peak of almost $50,000 AUD in just six hours.

Now it has somewhat stabilised at roughly $45,000 AUD, yet the cryptocurrency at large is still enjoying one of its most lucrative states in memory.

Dogecoin

And then, there’s Dogecoin. Bearing the much loved Shiba Inu ‘Doge’ face that’s become a worldwide meme, Dogecoin was started for fun and little else. Cue a couple of Tweets from Elon and a Reddit community with almost 500,000 members, and this silly little crypto has become the focus of this week’s second wildly unexpected value increase.

On January 28th, Dogecoin was valued at approximately 0.01 of a single Australian dollar, whereas as of the time of writing, it’s charting around $0.64 AUD. Rising more 640% in value over such a short time period isn’t unprecedented but is absolutely rare, and you can bet that for the second time this week, a number of keyboard warriors have just made a shit ton of money.

The Dogecoin subreddit (r/Dogecoin) has become the epicentre of the movement, where hundreds of posts written in all caps are hype-training the cryptocurrency value to its limit. The community’s goal is to raise the price to $1 then to $10, which is admittedly lofty.

What does it all mean?

First and foremost, this isn’t a call to spend your money on either Bitcoin or Dogecoin. Financial advice is not something you should take from a publication that regularly posts stories about life-ending orgasms or video games that get you stoned.

What we’re witnessing here is a wonderful moment of collective action, especially in the case of GameStop. Trading in stock and crypto has long been an inaccessible game to all but the ultra privileged, and seeing them become the losers this week has been a wonderful piece of schadenfreude for pretty much everyone who doesn’t own a yacht.

The 2020 rollercoaster doesn’t seem to quite be over yet, rather we’ve come around a bend and found ourselves in a loop-the-loop of world-scale financial upheaval. What happens next is anyone’s guess.

Learn more about the price of Bitcoin here.