It has been quite a volatile year for the meme coin Dogecoin (DOGE 0.52%). After all, cryptocurrencies surged following President Donald Trump's election win in November 2024, but it's been a bumpy, ultimately downhill ride ever since.
While Dogecoin is up nearly 7% in 2026, the token is still down over 64% in the past year. Despite Trump making good on his promise to introduce a regulatory environment that promotes cryptocurrencies, the gains have faded amid concerns about the economy and the trajectory of interest rates and inflation, and as whales have started selling some of their holdings.
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There has also been concern that quantum technology could render cryptocurrencies obsolete, though it's hard to know how close quantum is to being useful for crypto decryption. All that said, there still seems to be significant investor interest in the sector, which never seems to stay down for long. Is Dogecoin a buy?
Can Dogecoin ever escape its meme reputation?
Dogecoin is actually one of the oldest cryptocurrencies, having been launched in late 2013 as a joke with a Shiba Inu mascot. While Dogecoin has its own blockchain network, it is not technically strong, as it cannot process hundreds or thousands of transactions per second (TPS). Furthermore, Dogecoin is not a good store of value like Bitcoin because it has a massive supply of over 168 billion tokens, which increases by 5 billion every year.
The best thing Dogecoin has going for it, in my mind, is that it's a meme coin with a fervent, loyal following on social media and likely a group of investors who have made a ton of money on the token. After all, Dogecoin's price has risen about 1,400% over the past five years.
CRYPTO: DOGE
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But for there to be a real investment case for Dogecoin, the network needs to develop real-world utility. Now, there have been media reports suggesting that a group of developers is looking to build a Layer-2 blockchain solution for Dogecoin, which would process transactions off of the main network and also give Dogecoin smart-contract functionality.
This could enable developers to build decentralized applications, such as gaming, on Dogecoin. Given the token's popularity, offerings like this could drive significant network usage and, therefore, increase demand for the token. However, it's difficult to know the status of this project, and many other blockchain networks already have these capabilities, so there's no guarantee it would be a game changer.
At this point, I would still recommend that investors avoid the token or only take a very small position for fun, if they are so inclined.
