Dogecoin surges "to the moon" in just 14 days

 

At the start of 2021, Dogecoin wasn't on the radar of many investors, but over the past few months, it's seen immense growth, particularly after mammoth entrepreneur and tech enthusiast, Elon Musk, seemingly endorsed it in February this year. What started as a cryptocurrency joke, based on a meme, has now become a coin that's risen in value by more than 9,000 per cent this year alone. 

Meltwater, the world's leading editorial and social media analytics provider, tracked and analysed news and social media data from April 8 to April 21 to highlight the trends and other predictive data points for this growth. 

As with a number of currencies and shares, Dogecoin's price is heavily impacted by speculation and sentiment on social media. With over 1.04 million total mentions across these platforms in the past 14 days, it has undoubtedly become the most hyped up altcoin on the market at the moment in terms of generated interest. 

When asked for his opinion on the sudden rise in Dogecoin's value, Zubair Timol, director of strategy for the EMEA regions at Meltwater, was clear on his position: 

"It's not surprising that Dogecoin has soared over the last two weeks, especially after a vague endorsement by Elon Musk on Twitter earlier this year. This underscores an interesting correlation between public opinion, influence and the changing value of cryptocurrencies". 

So, what does this mean for the current popularity of crypto stalwarts Bitcoin and Ethereum? 

Comparative Analysis on Dogecoin, Bitcoin and Ethereum 

Online Mentions From April 8 to April 21, each of these three cryptocurrencies had individually garnered more than one million online mentions across the globe, with Bitcoin leading the pack at 5.03 million. Illustrated in the graph below, mentions of Dogecoin first peaked on Wednesday, April 14, where the data recorded more than 300,000 online mentions on the day. This was due to a price spike of more than 25 per cent the day before, as reported by Forbes. 

April 14 also saw mentions on Bitcoin increase to over 500,000 online, as the cryptocurrency saw its own positive gains, "surging to nearly $65 000", according to DailyFX. Mentions of Dogecoin also increased on this day to more than 315 000, as a 'Dogecoin Daily Discussion' took place on Reddit, while Doge fans tried to find out if Tesla would accept Dogecoin as payment when buying Tesla vehicles. On the other hand, mentions on Ethereum slightly increased as well, to just under 150,000 - showing an overarching correlation. 

The next big spike in Dogecoin mentions was on April 16, when the popular cryptocurrency surged to a record high and was up almost 300 per cent within a week. The total number of mentions on this day were 723,447. 

While mentions of Dogecoin fell to less than 280 000 on April 18, mentions of Bitcoin picked up, due to the 14 per cent dip that the cryptocurrency experienced on Sunday, as reported by Reuters. The data recorded more than 450,000 online Bitcoin mentions.  

On April 20, known as Doge Day, mentions of Dogecoin increased again to over 500,000, as fans of the cryptocurrency used social media to help drive Dogecoin to new records, a feat that was achieved as "the price of a single Dogecoin jumped as much as 20%".  

"By now, it should be apparent that social media data is a highly effective barometer for understanding speculation and public sentiment," says Timol, "which - as we know, can directly impact investment predictions. And yet, analysts are still not utilising these resources to their full advantage, for a truly competitive edge". 

Share of voice by location With the USA leading the way when it comes to online mentions of these cryptocurrencies, the data indicates that Bitcoin still dominates as the most popular, and perhaps the most talked about, cryptocurrency in the world during these last two weeks.  

Dogecoin, however, is fast becoming a notable competitor, not only in the USA but across the top five countries that have been mentioning these cryptocurrencies for the last two weeks.  

Top Keywords Dogecoin

Some of the top keywords that the data found included: 

- Dogecoin Daily Discussion 

- Large trading group 

- Cryptocurrency 

- Doge 

Bitcoin 

Some of the top keywords that the data found included: 

- New Airdrop 

- White-house-market 

- Project-aurora-market 

- Alternative cryptocurrencies 

Ethereum 

Some of the top keywords that the data found included: 

- Alternative cryptocurrencies 

- Similar cryptocurrencies 

- Popular cryptocurrency exchanges 

- Exchange that deals 

- Aforementioned exchanges 

What does this mean for the future of investment in altcoins and trading? 

"The sooner investors understand the value of predictive data from the media, the sooner this will become the ultimate battlefield for calculated financial gain," concludes Timol.