Traders, influencers lick their wounds after vicious Dogecoin dump
After a pump that highlighted the power of crowd mania and meme magic, Dogecoin has tumbled nearly 40% in a retreat from $.06 Friday highs, falling as low as $.033 this morning.
For the influencers and Wall Street Bets refugees who joined in on the rise — many of whom were taking their first ride on what’s known to be a notoriously volatile chart — the price action reversal has been especially harrowing.
Doge doing what it does best, welcoming people into crypto with a huge slap in the face. https://t.co/0GpiKe4B8U
— RyanJK (@RJ_Kunz) January 30, 2021Just yesterday, Dogecoin made history for cracking the top 10 cryptoassets by marketcap for the first time since 2015. The currency named after a dog meme that was started as a joke was propelled to such lofty heights on the back of similarly record-breaking social media volume, according to analytics provided by The TIE.
While some tied the rapid price appreciation to Elon Musk memes and the inevitable groupthink of crypto’s often momentum-based markets, $DOGE’s success may also be rooted in anti-establishment sentiments running rife through the retail crowd following popular trading app Robinhood disabling ‘Buy’ orders for certain assets.
The move from Robinhood and other brokers prompted furious accusations of hypocrisy and speculation that hedge funds were being favored over smaller investors — and what's a better way to highlight a broken system than pumping a joke coin to a multi-billion dollar valuation?
$Doge it is.Elon pump it.$1. https://t.co/7pvyn2tZA7
— WSB Chairman (@AltsStreetsBets) January 28, 2021However, after reports of withdrawal issues on multiple centralized exchanges, Dogecoin has undergone a violent overnight reversal, leading many buyers to take to social media to express their regret. Just a few hours after posting that she’d “finally caved and bought the dog stock,” podcast host and media personality Mia Khalifa indicated some buyer’s remorse:
This is the first time I’ve ever hated a dog.
— Mia K. (@miakhalifa) January 30, 2021Khalifa wasn’t alone in feeling the pain. Multiple streamers and social media influencers had been along for the ride, and stream viewers last night witnessed some wondering if a “nuke” had gone off:
Streamers watch their life savings crash after investing into $DOGE coin. pic.twitter.com/lxr3BqPAtq
— Crypto Whale (@CryptoWhale) January 30, 2021Seeing the value of DOGE nearly cut in half doesn’t seem to have pushed too many investors to more fundamentally sound projects, however. #DogeToADollar is currently a trending topic on Twitter, and a steady stream of users are claiming to double down.