Dogecoin’s (DOGE) price exploded in 2021, setting a new all-time high as well as bringing in retail investors into the cryptocurrency space.
The rising interest in DOGE, which was launched in 2013, may be ascribed in part to the token’s large returns in 2021, as well as endorsements from celebrities, such as Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who recently enabled DOGE to be used to buy Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) “merch.”
However, aside from that, the decentralized token is continuing to make strides in the crypto ecosystem as regulation and crypto market maturity are increasing, as evidenced by the recent stance on digital assets taken by countries such as Russia and India, as well as Ukraine, which recently legalized Bitcoin.
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Given that El Salvador also declared Bitcoin legal tender last year, the issue of regulation is becoming more widespread as more nations are bringing the matter to light, and this will eventually assist Dogecoin if it is to regain $0.5 or more in 2022.
Below, we’ve conducted an in-depth analysis of Dogecoin for our price prediction delving into the coin’s recent developments, including its transitions to Proof-of-Stake, the number of holders, backing from Tesla, year-on-year (YoY) returns, and its general fundamentals.
Dogecoin (DOGE) latest market statistics
Currently, DOGE is ranked 11th by total market cap and is trading at $0.138, down 4.99% on the day and 9.87% in the last week, according to CoinMarketCap statistics.
The token’s market value is $18.3 billion, but it is still a long way from the $88 billion it reached on May 7, 2021, and the issue remains if DOGE can rebound over $0.5 in 2022, a level it has not reached since May 17 last year.
Despite the massive pullback, DOGE is up threefold in the last 12 months, and as a result, those who had invested for the long term rather than speculate are still bullish over the asset.
Interest still remains with Dogecoin
Without a doubt, there is still considerable interest in DOGE. On February 6, the official Dogecoin Twitter page reached 3 million followers, making it the most followed cryptocurrency account on the social media network.
In addition, in the last three months, the meme coin has continued to add to the number of its holders, adding over 300,000 new addresses to its network. Indeed on November 21, the number of holders stood at 4,523,672 compared to 4,830,807 on February 18, meaning there was a total increase of over 307,135 new holders in that time.
Still, DOGE’s holder distribution remains highly concentrated, with 16 addresses owning 47% of the total Dogecoin supply at the time of writing.
DOGE backed by big names in crypto
Given Elon Musk’s strong support for Dogecoin, the cryptocurrency has gone well above expectations, and with continued development, many still consider it could return to $0.5.
According to Musk, Dogecoin is superior to the flagship digital currency Bitcoin in terms of transactions.
“Fundamentally, Bitcoin is not a good substitute for transactional currency. Even though it was created as a silly joke, Dogecoin is better suited for transactions. The total transactional flow that you can do with Dogecoin per day has a much higher potential than Bitcoin.” he said.
As things stand, Dogecoin is the only cryptocurrency that Tesla accepts as a form of payment. Built on Bitcoin’s native architecture, DOGE also uses the Proof-of-Work algorithm to verify transactions. But, the network processes transactions faster and at a lower cost than Bitcoin, making it easier to use as payment for goods and services.
Although at present Dogecoin is Proof-of-Work, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin, revealed that Dogecoin also aims to transition to a Proof-of-Stake network with community staking.
“Every major cryptocurrency except for one has an active plan to switch to Proof-of-Stake. I guess the arguments will be even easier to make once you know Ethereum is Proof-of-Stake and once you know Dogecoin’s plans are further along and Zcash plans further along,” Buterin stated.
Dogecoin price prediction for 2022
With a lot of prominent personalities supporting DOGE, as well as widespread demand for the coin in the United States, it is possible that Dogecoin may return to its previous price of $0.50.
If Dogecoin is to reach $0.50, it will need to continue to attract new investors and hope for increased regulation in other markets in the cryptocurrency space to help drive up its price.
It will also need to continue developing its network as it did with its first non-fungible token (NFT) on the blockchain, which was produced at the cost of only $0.0018, representing an enormous efficiency compared to NFT production on Ethereum.
Disclaimer: The content on this site should not be considered investment advice. Investing is speculative. When investing, your capital is at risk.
