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The cryptocurrency market experienced a roller-coaster week, with many coins recording gains or losses. This past Monday, one of the more notable performances was provided by DOGE/USD, which rose 25% over its prior valuation to become one of the only major cryptocurrencies that delivered positive returns on Thursday afternoon during trade time in the Asia-Pacific region (Tokyo).
The meme-based altcoin had followed Bitcoin’s movements downward over seven days but finally turned things around following announcements from Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk regarding accepting payment using digital currency to begin selling merchandise exclusively through blockchain tech company Coinbase starting next month.
“Tesla will make some merch buyable with Doge & see how it goes,” he tweeted.
In doing so, Tesla adopts a novel position by accepting only Dogecoin out of all possible cryptocurrency options. As a result, Musk risks angering Bitcoin advocates, previously allowing then disqualified BTC purchases for Tesla vehicles over alleged environmental concerns.
After being declared Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year” this week, Musk declared that Dogecoin is “better suited for transactions” than Bitcoin.
“The total transaction flow that you do with Dogecoin, like transactions per day, is much higher potential than Bitcoin,” he said, adding to a longstanding record of public praise of DOGE.
Despite this huge increase in Dogecoin market capitalization, the mood among analysts is bleak when it comes to a broader altcoin resurgence.
With Bitcoin maintaining its 40% market cap dominance while failing to reverse its downtrend, little hope is currently circulating regarding fresh gains for holders as the year gradually winds to an end.
“Starting to get some June/July feelings on the markets in which we’re just chopping around, slowly consolidating towards a bottoming structure, while the mass is waiting for a lower level to be hit, which they’ll probably miss,” Cointelegraph contributor Michaël van de Poppe forecast in a more optimistic commentary Wednesday.
Doge is a cryptocurrency created by software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer, who decided to create a payment system as a “joke”, making fun of the wild speculation in cryptocurrencies at the time. It is considered both the 1st “Meme coin”, and more specifically, the first “dog coin.” Despite its satirical nature, some consider it a legitimate investment prospect. Dogecoin is based on the Scrypt algorithm, and the transaction process is more convenient than Bitcoin. Dogecoin takes only 1 minute to confirm, while BTC takes 10 minutes.
After consolidating, DOGE/USD was back below the $0.20 mark at the time of writing.
