Dogecoin bets jump to $2b as price reaches highest level since 2021

Dogecoin (DOGE) surged to its highest since December 2021 on Thursday amid bullish sentiment and speculation about the use of the dog-themed meme coin on the social-media platform X.

DOGE exchanged hands at 22 cents in European afternoon hours, a 17% gain over 24 hours. The broader market was little changed, with Bitcoin (BTC) steady at around the $70,000 level and the broad-based majors index CoinDesk 20 showing no change.

The token tends to react to payments-related developments at any Elon Musk-owned company, such as X or Tesla, and several social-media posts from prominent Dogecoin community members speculated about the token’s usage on X, likely fueling trading interest.

“Dear #Dogecoin, with X's new payment branch being awarded more licenses in the U.S., many are speculating about the implementation of crypto payments in the platform,” Dogecoin developer @@mishaboar said in an X post Thursday. “Early this month, Elon said X is very close to landing a money transmitter license in California. Getting the license in NY will still take a few months,” he added.

CoinGecko data shows that trading volume for DOGE shot up to $7 billion in the past 24 hours from an average of $3 billion earlier in the week, even as broader crypto volumes remained lower amid little volatility.

Elsewhere, futures tracking the tokens saw open interest rise to nearly $2 billion across crypto exchanges from $1 billion on Monday, indicative of rising bets on price volatility.

DOGE open interest surged to nearly $2 billion. (Coinglass)

Speculation about the token’s usage on X has been around since Musk bought the company in 2021, given his endorsement of the token. Musk’s electric car company, Tesla, has accepted DOGE payments for merchandise purchases in the Tesla Store since 2021.

X said in January it planned to launch a peer-to-peer payments service this year. However, there has been no official communication on whether DOGE will be a payment option.