A cryptocurrency that was created as a joke exploded into plain view on Wall Street on Monday, with a surge in dogecoin sending its 2021 return above 8,100% — more than double the gains on the S&P 500, including dividends, since 1988.
Dogecoin’s rise from a quirky meme into a widely traded asset worth about $50 billion — more than Marriott International Inc. or Ford Motor Co. — is the latest act of financial alchemy by rapidly moving individual investors who have used access to no-fee trading platforms and a wave of government stimulus money to transform markets over the past year.
The cryptocurrency’s rise is reminiscent of GameStop Corp.’s stunning advance earlier this year, an episode in which traders congregating on Reddit and other social-media platforms made a past-prime mall retailer into a stock-market superpower.
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