Cryptocurrency Dogecoin climbs on  social media hashtags 'to mark pot-smoking day'        

Cryptocurrency Dogecoin's price has been driven higher to mark a day known for celebrating pot smoking.

US fans are driving the cryptocurrency Dogecoin higher to mark a day known for celebrating pot smoking.

The Shiba Inu-themed token traded near 42 cents in the US, further stoking the social media frenzy that’s being propelled by the #DogeDay hashtag trending on Twitter, which is pot-user slang for smoking cannabis.

Prices have jumped about 10% in the past 24 hours, according to data from crypto data provider CoinGecko.com. In the past week, Dogecoin has jumped more than 400% and now has a market value of more than $53bn. 

The meteoric gains have come even as other crypto-assets start to break down. Bitcoin has fallen for five straight days, slumping below $55,000. 

Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency, fell 5.2% to $2,093. “There’s a tribe of investors, many of them millennials, who see it as a cause, a movement,” said Antoni Trenchev, the co-founder of crypto-lending firm Nexo. “Dogecoin is symptomatic of the zeitgeist happening before our very eyes.” 

In the wider crypto space, the latest volatility has fuelled talk about a bubble. Crypto’s champions are part of an iconoclastic trend, including the WallStreetBets retail traders, that’s challenging investment norms. The likes of Bitcoin and Ether are still up about 90% and 180%, respectively, this year as the crypto industry matures. Institutional investors such as Goldman Sachs and Bank of New York Mellon have stepped into the sector, and the Nasdaq listing of Coinbase last week has lifted crypto’s profile in mainstream markets.