Dogecoin completes 12 years since launch

Yesterday, Dogecoin officially marked 12 years since its creation. Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer, the founders of DOGE, celebrated the memecoin’s 12th anniversary on X.

Markus wrote, “12 years ago I made something stupid and then a bunch of even stupider stuff happened and now I am posting about it on the internet to 2.15 million followers.” He closed the post saying, “happy 12th genesis day, dogecoin.”

Palmer celebrated the anniversary, saying, “Happy Doge Day to every single one of you beautiful degens!” He added, “May your bags forever pump, may your vibes stay diamond-handed, and may this pack of lunatics never split. To the moon, together. Love y’all forever.”

Dogecoin was created on December 6, 2013, by software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer. The memecoin was part of the altcoin bubble that took place during the 2013 bull market. Dogecoin became an instant and accidental success.

Why was Dogecoin created?

After the creation of Bitcoin in 2009, there were no alternative cryptocurrencies for two years. People were still learning about blockchain and mining, and at the time, Bitcoin was mined using CPUs.

In 2011, the first altcoin was created, called Namecoin. Other altcoins like Litecoin, Peercoin, and Feathercoin were released in 2011–2012. Most altcoins were technical experiments. There was no real traction from retail investors.

The cryptocurrency space was serious and filled with high technical jargon. In late 2013, BTC shot from $13 to $1,100, and altcoins gained real traction from retail investors.

Billy and Jackson thought crypto was extremely serious, and there was no fun. The duo decided to create Dogecoin. Jackson worked on DOGE’s website while Billy developed the memecoin and released it to the public.

The logo of Dogecoin is based on a photo of a Japanese Shiba Inu dog meme. The website of Dogecoin recorded 1 million visitors in the first month.

DOGE grows instantly 

Surprisingly, DOGE gained instant traction. Redditors started using it as a tipping currency. After two weeks, DOGE surpassed BTC in terms of daily transactions. On December 19, 2013, DOGE climbed by ~300% in 72 hours. The memecoin jumped from $0.00026 to $0.00095.

Dogecoin helped raise funds for a bunch of charity organizations. The Dogecoin community built clean water wells in Kenya, and they even helped the Jamaican Bobsled Team go to the Sochi Winter Olympics.

In 2021, Dogecoin saw a massive run due to Elon Musk’s endorsement. The memecoin jumped to $0.7316 and was on the way to hit the $1 price point.

Fast forward to 2024–2025, Elon Musk continued his push for Dogecoin through the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). DOGE helped curb overspending in the US government.

At the time of writing, DOGE ranks in the tenth spot on CoinGecko with a market cap of $22.47 billion. The memecoin has a 24-hour trading volume of $596 million and stands at $0.1393.

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