Dogecoin’s record-breaking rise shoots ‘joke’ cryptocurrency to wider attention

Analysts say Elon Musk’s turn as host of Saturday Night Live will raise its profile yet further

With a surge of more than 14,000% since the start of the year, Dogecoin’s market capitalisation – the combined value of every coin – has now hit more than $84bn.

It is perhaps the ultimate symbol of late capitalism: a digital currency that started as a joke, now worth more than the Ford motor company, BP or Tesco.

Riding a wave of speculative interest despite Covid-19 triggering the worst global recession since the 1930s Great Depression, Dogecoin has been a huge hit with amateur investors. It is a cryptocurrency based on an internet meme – a humorous online phrase or photo, which on this occasion is a dog – and has shot to wider attention with a record-breaking rise in value in recent weeks.