At Williamsburg Pizza in New York, there is only one cryptocurrency You can use it to pay for your pie: dogecoin,
You can use Memecoin to buy beer and “Famous Wings” or perhaps “Barry Bonds Homerun Baked Potato” at the University Sports Grill in Tempe, Arizona. And even Dogecoin’s most high-profile fan, Elon Muskhas once again floated the idea of accepting the token as payment for Tesla merchants.
Dogecoin was literally a joke. Yet 11 years into its existence, a punchline is emerging that no one expected: The token has become surprisingly popular among businesses looking to accept crypto for real-world purchases. The main reason for this is that payments on Memecoin’s network are very fast and the costs are significantly lower than many other cryptocurrencies. While transaction costs vary, the average fee is currently about 0.07 dogecoin, or less than a penny, while using bitcoin costs the equivalent of about 79 cents, according to BitInfoCharts.
“Dogecoin is the only proof-of-work cryptocurrency with transaction times fast enough and fees low enough to be practical for traders like me,” said Aaron McCann, co-founder of Williamsburg Pizza. While payments in Dogecoin account for only 1% of gross sales, he said, “It’s a small, but growing part of our revenue.”
McCann is trying its best to increase a specific use of the token, as the use of all cryptocurrencies in payments is somewhat rare. After six years of trying to figure out how to accept cryptocurrencies at a Williamsburg pizza, McCann took matters into his own hands and created DogExpress, a payments processor specifically for Dogecoin. McCann began using DogeExpress at Williamsburg Pizza more than two months ago and has since rolled it out at five retailers, with eleven more in the early stages of joining.
Another surprising use of Dogecoin is in remittances. Cash payments from relatives living abroad are traditionally sent through international banks or financial retail businesses, but they often include transaction fees of up to 7%. And Dogecoin transactions, even across borders, typically take only a minute – much faster than the average Bitcoin transaction time, which can range from 10 minutes to an hour. According to data provider CoinMarketCap.com, the most popular exchanges used to send Dogecoin are Binance and Coinbase.
Of course, Dogecoin’s cheeky nature, which has inspired countless memes, also adds to its appeal. Even if you’re not a cryptocurrency enthusiast, you’ve probably heard of Dogecoin. The king of memecoins, the one with the picture of a Shiba Inu dog, is everywhere: on social-media platforms like X and Reddit or, more importantly, in Coinbase wallets. It was created as a parody in 2013 when cryptocurrencies started gaining popularity.
Its notable supporters include celebrities such as rappers snoop dogg and lil yachty, and even mark cubanThe Dallas Mavericks basketball team began accepting Dogecoin as payment for merchandise and tickets in 2021, though use so far has been modest: Cuban estimates that the Mavericks have accepted about 25,000 Dogecoins so far.
‘Vibrant Online Community’
“It’s an inexpensive way to be part of an incredibly vibrant online community,” Cuban told Bloomberg.
According to McCann, Dogecoin’s virality makes the cryptocurrency an effective marketing tool for businesses. This helps it stand out from comparable alternatives like Litecoin which also allows faster and cheaper transactions. Litecoin is the most used cryptocurrency for transactions made using payments app BitPay, accounting for 38% share in August, according to the company’s website. Dogecoin is ranked fifth, ahead of larger tokens like XRP and USDC. Still, according to CoinMarketCap.com, Litecoin’s current market capitalization is less than $5 billion compared to Dogecoin’s $16 billion, ranking it as the eighth-largest cryptocurrency.
Similar to digital assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum, Dogecoin is a peer-to-peer currency that uses blockchain technology to verify transactions. And like Bitcoin, it is a “proof of work” token, meaning that so-called miners compete to solve complex mathematical puzzles to validate transactions and earn compensation paid in crypto.
Big fluctuations in prices. Dogecoin is much more volatile than Bitcoin
For crypto fanatics, Memecoin has some disadvantages compared to the original cryptocurrency. Dogecoin is considered less secure than Bitcoin. And unlike Bitcoin, which was designed to have a limited supply, there is no limit on the amount of Dogecoin in circulation, meaning the case for buying and holding it for the long term is weak. Its value is also prone to wide swings, with 260-day historical volatility nearly double that of Bitcoin. It traded at about 6 cents a year ago, was up to 22 cents in March, and is down to about 11 cents today.
‘Right Tailed’
Yet Dogecoin actually has a multi-year track record of being “right-tailed,” meaning most of its violent moves have been up rather than down, said Frederick Collins, chief executive and founder of crypto data platform Velo Data. Are on the other side. “If the decrease in value of Dogecoin happens at a slower rate than the increase in value, that is a plus when you want to use it as a quick arbitrage.”
Collins says: “As time has gone on, Dogecoin has become less of a memecoin and more of just a blank slate – with no technical or specific risks. “Compared to the rest of the crypto market, it offers a very solid mix of familiarity, simplicity, and low cost.”
Kevin Nohr, owner of University Sports Grill in Tempe, began accepting Dogecoin at his bar about a month ago. So far, he has booked around 20 transactions with Memecoin. For him the currency’s appeal extends to its surrounding community, which he described as “loyal” and “supportive”.
“Memecoins typically come and go, so having Doge still in this space means a lot to the Doge community,” Nohr said.
It so happens that that community includes none other than the richest man on the planet. Musk, a lover of meme culture on his X platform, frequently engages with Dogecoin-themed accounts. A few weeks ago, Musk floated the idea of reinstating the option to pay for Tesla merchandise with Dogecoin after the company removed the feature earlier this year. In August, Musk and Tesla won a $258 billion class action lawsuit claiming they inflated the price of Dogecoin in a “pyramid scheme.” Investors said Musk inflated the token’s price by posting about Doge on X, but a judge rejected the claims.
Now that Musk has the ear of the Republican presidential candidate donald trumpA one-time crypto skeptic turned cheerleader who promises to be the “Crypto President,” the Memecoin community’s dreams of sending “Dogecoin to the moon” – or $1 to be precise – seem less far-fetched than they once were. Are. Musk has also suggested that if Trump returns to the White House he would lead a new Department of Government Efficiency (abbreviation: DOGE).
Meanwhile, smaller businesses like University Sports Grill are taking a more grassroots approach to promoting the use of the token.
“I suspect that with a little more advertising and word of mouth, we could probably make 10% of our total revenue in Dogecoin a month,” Nohr said. “It is expected that in the future, Dogecoin will become one of the most popular forms of payment.”
