Dogecoin ‘is pure speculation and will end badly’ says Yusko
The cryptocurrency, which was started as a joke, is now worth more than Ford, BP and Tesco after its coin reached an all-time-high value yesterday of $0.68 (£0.49). With a surge of more than 14,000 percent since the start of the year, Dogecoin’s market capitalisation – the combined value of every coin – has now hit more than $84billion (£60billion). It comes as Mr Musk, who has been dubbed the “Dogefather” for his role in promoting the meme cryptocurrency, is preparing to host Saturday Night Live this weekend.
And with the recent backing of other famous supporters including rapper Snoop Dogg, American TV presenter Guy Fieri and YouTube sensation Jake Paul, Prof Alexander – from the University of Sussex Business School – says the only way is up for now.
The expert told Express.co.uk: “What people want to know about right now is Dogecoin.
“May 8 is supposed to be Doge Day, Elon Musk is going on Saturday Night Live.
“I think that we could see a huge surge in price.
“He has also liquidated some of his assets in Bitcoin, the question now is whether he’s going to put it into Dogecoin.”
Mr Musk revealed recently that Tesla had sold 10 percent of its Bitcoin holdings in March, collecting $101million (£72million) from the sale and helping it land its seventh consecutive profitable quarter.
He said the sale was only to demonstrate the cryptocurrency's "liquidity” before suggesting he has held on to his own personal holdings by stating on Twitter: “I have not sold any of my Bitcoin.”
Prof Alexander says it is difficult to determine exactly what he is up to with his recent antics.
She added: “I don’t understand his mentality. He is certainly very into celebrity meme culture, as are quite a few others.
READ MORE: Bitcoin hammer blow as JPMorgan analysts back rival crypto to ‘outperform BTC’
“We are now seeing other celebrities jump in with Musk ahead of May 8 and it is really just a joke.
“Why Musk took up Dogecoin after it was abandoned by its creators, I don’t know, it used to be worthless.
“The question is difficult to answer, it’s something to do with the mentality of him and other well-known, rich celebrities.”
Prof Alexander prefers to call Musk’s beloved token “dodgy coin” because, along with Bitcoin, she says “it is a joke”.
She told Express.co.uk that “public blockchains for smart contracts are the future”.
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Blockchain technology enables the existence of cryptocurrency and a smart contract is a self-executing contract with the terms of the agreement between buyer and seller being directly written into lines of code.
This allows for trusted transactions and agreements to be carried out without the need for a central authority, legal system, or external enforcement mechanism.
Many investors have already stated that Ethereum's decentralised, open-source blockchain with smart contract functionality will trump Bitcoin because it is “easier to use”.
Prof Alexander explained: “Crypto has the power to change the entire financial system and the way financial markets dominate the economy.
“It is the future of all commerce, if you are a washing machine manufacturer you will use smart contracts, so will the health system.
“Smart contracts are on blockchains – it is a code that automatically executes step-by-step as soon as something is done the next step happens.
“Not all of these are on Ethereum, there are other public blockchains like Polkadot and IOTA – different blockchains focus on different types of applications.
“They don’t have to be public, either, they can be private like the central bank digital currencies would have to be.”
Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has previously warned against investing in crypto.
It stated: “If consumers invest, they should be prepared to lose all their money.
"Some investments advertising high returns from crypto assets may not be subject to regulation beyond anti-money laundering.
“Significant price volatility, combined with the difficulties valuing [Bitcoin] reliably, place consumers at a high risk of losses.”
Express.co.uk does not give financial advice. The journalists who worked on this article do not own cryptocurrency.
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