Dogecoin

Dogecoin is a proof-of-work cryptocurrency used mainly for tipping and small payments.

Dogecoin is a public cryptocurrency launched on 6 December 2013. Software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer created it as a joke, naming it after the 'Doge' internet meme of a Shiba Inu dog. The joke caught on quickly: within two weeks the network carried more transactions per day than Bitcoin. Both creators left development in 2014, and a small team of volunteer maintainers has run the open-source Dogecoin Core software since.

DOGE is mined with proof of work: computers compete to add a block about once a minute, using the Scrypt algorithm. Since 2014 Dogecoin has allowed merged mining, so miners can secure Dogecoin and a parent chain such as Litecoin with the same work. There is no supply cap. Each block pays the miner a fixed 10,000 DOGE, about 5.26 billion new DOGE a year, or roughly 3.4% of the 156 billion in circulation in September 2026. Because the amount is fixed, the percentage rate slowly falls.

Dogecoin is mainly used for tipping, small payments and trading. Fees are a few US cents. In the US, the SEC's March 2026 interpretation lists DOGE as an example of a digital commodity, and spot exchange-traded funds holding DOGE have traded since November 2025. Most trading, though, happens in futures, and the price has often moved on celebrity comments, especially from Elon Musk.

No company issues DOGE or earns revenue from it. The Dogecoin Foundation, re-established in 2021, sponsors developers and holds the trademarks, but says it does not control the software. Its corporate arm, House of Doge, has promoted business uses of DOGE, including an 'official Dogecoin treasury' run by the listed company CleanCore Solutions, which held about 730 million DOGE in October 2025.