It’s Hard to Take Dogecoin Seriously, But the Doge Doesn’t Care

Here are some things with a total market value in the neighborhood of $40 billion: Insurance giant Prudential Financial Inc., the manufacturer Carrier Global Corp., and, at just a few billion less, Southwest Airlines Co. Or, for a recent price of about 30¢ each, the supply of Dogecoin, the cryptocurrency that started as a joke in 2013. After climbing more than 6,000% this year in a hockey-stick rally, it’s still largely a gag—but one with a potentially darker punchline.

There’s no good reason it should be valuable. “Dogecoin has no apparent commercial or investment use other than as a conduit for speculative mania and the attempt to make a buck,” says Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at Oanda Asia Pacific Pte., a platform for trading traditional currencies. “I suspect much of its appeal lies in the fact that it is very, very cheap to buy and sell, as opposed to $60,000 for Bitcoin, making it much more approachable to a retail trader who fancies a flutter.”