How Retail Interest Keeps the Meme Coin Afloat

• In the past two weeks, Dogecoin has added over 400,000 new wallet addresses, with those holding below 1 DOGE dominating as cult-like retail interest continues to offer the meme coin a lifeline.
• Whale activity has barely changed this year, showing that institutional investors aren’t convinced about the long-term prospects of the crypto, which could be detrimental in the long run.

Once the hottest coin in the crypto world, Dogecoin is now a shadow of its former self. Its price has only changed by 1.73% in the past month, and the trading volume has been unimpressive. However, despite its dormancy, DOGE continues to attract retail investors aplenty in a cult-like phenomenon.

At press time, DOGE trades for $0.07992, gaining 2% in the past day as its volume shot up 18% to hit $229 million.

DOGE has been trading sideways for several weeks now. In the past month, its price has changed by less than 2%, with around five days of sharp volatility in which it set an intra-month high of $0.089. In contrast, other meme coins have been quite active, with the newer ones like BONK giving investors high returns in last year’s bull rally.

However, despite Dogecoin’s stagnation on the price charts and its relative lack of adoption beyond mere speculation, it remains one of the most popular cryptos, especially for novice traders.

Data by Santiment shows that in the past 14 days, Dogecoin recorded over 410,000 new non-zero wallets, which are wallets that hold some DOGE, no matter how small. This adoption was driven by retail investors, with the number of wallets that hold 1 DOGE or less dominating the charts.

This demonstrates that Dogecoin remains one of the most popular cryptos for newbies who are just getting started with crypto. The reasons for this vary, with some drawn to the light ‘unserious’ nature of Dogecoin; remember, Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer created Dogecoin as a fun alternative to the serious Bitcoin.

DOGE has also received the backing of massively popular individuals, none more than X and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. However, other celebrities have aped in, from Snoop Dogg and Kim Kardashian to Mark Cuban and Gene Simmons.

Whales Remain Unconvinced by DOGE

However, while these celebrity endorsements and the fun nature of DOGE appeal to retail investors, the whales are not as impressed. According to Santiment, this year, the whale holdings of the meme coin have barely moved; in fact, wallets holding over 1000 coins, which for DOGE only equate to $80, have barely added to the holdings, showing that Dogecoin’s adoption continues to depend on investors experimenting with crypto.

The whales have also been consistently dumping their holdings. On Wednesday, one unknown whale dumped 100 million tokens on Robinhood for sale.

🚨 100,000,000 #DOGE (7,836,678 USD) transferred from unknown wallet to #Robinhoodhttps://t.co/REEoqcGAoe

— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) February 7, 2024

The negative sentiment has spread to the derivatives market, where long bets have continued to dwindle. Short bets for the meme coin have consistently outpaced the bullish bets this year, with only a few days of exception.