[줌인] Musk is the best in a word… What is’Doji Coin’?

Enter 2021.02.11 07:00

The cryptocurrency dogecoin hit an all-time high on the 9th. According to CoinMarketCap, a cryptocurrency trading site, Dogecoin was trading at $0.084 at 10:20 am on the day, breaking the previous high of $0.083, which was recorded the previous day, in a day. At the time of the peak, the trading volume for 24 hours reached about 16.9 billion dollars (about 18.86 trillion billion won).

How did this cryptocurrency, which we have not even heard of, made the market bustle?

Dogecoin is a cryptocurrency created by developers in 2013 as a joke. At the time, it was created by developer Billy Marcus using photos of Shiba inu popular on the Internet as a meme.

Among experts, it is classified as a currency that is dominated by fandom rather than technological impact. This is because the rise of Dogecoin is deeply related to Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk. The US economic media CNBC analyzed that the rally of Dogecoin was also due to Tesla’s announcement of a policy to invest in bitcoin worth 1.5 billion dollars (about 1.67 trillion won) and purchase Tesla products with bitcoin. . Another cryptocurrency, Dogecoin, is also gaining strength in the rosy prospect of Bitcoin presented by Musk.

Musk also promoted Dogecoin directly. They synthesize Doji with Simba, the protagonist of the animated Lion King, or parody a pop song’Who let the dogs out’ with’Who let the doge out’. The individual investors who followed him calling him “Papa Musk” were keenly keen on his tweets and longed for Dogecoin, and this year alone, it has reached the point of a 1500% rise. Even when Musk shared the image of the fake magazine Doge on the 29th of last month (local time), the price of Dogecoin jumped more than 800%.

Park Sang-hyun, a researcher at Hi Investment & Securities, pointed out this as “a case that shows that the fandom economy has a great influence on the financial market as well as the economy.” The fandom economy literally means a new economy led by the fandom. If consumers in the past passively embraced the products, services, and values ​​that companies provided, today’s consumers are much more proactive in delivering what they want to companies.

In the financial market, the recent game stop situation is a prime example. Individual investors dissatisfied with the short-selling practice set a record high of 1700% in a month as individual investors bought massive stocks of the dying game retail chain. Melvin Capital, a hedge fund that shorted GameStop, lost 52% in the month of January.

However, many point out that it remains to be seen whether the investment that put Musk at the forefront will be an excellent option or will end with vain speculation. Dogecoin’s rally is based on puns, so it requires more attention. “Cryptocurrency has never entered the real economy, so I am concerned about the situation in which investors are crowded,” said Gehrig Heilman, a researcher at the cryptocurrency exchange Blockchain.com. He warned literally “joke.”

The reaction of institutional circles is also noted. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said, “I know that cryptocurrency is used for illegal finance in many cases,” and suggested the possibility of regulation. As the market was greatly affected by Musk’s tweet, the possibility of being sanctioned by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is also discussed.