Dogecoin (DOGE -4.94%), which was created as a parody of Bitcoin (BTC -2.67%), reached its all-time high of $0.74 on May 8, 2021 -- the same day Elon Musk, its most prominent backer, hosted Saturday Night Live. But as of this writing, it trades at about $0.08.
Dogecoin, like many other meme coins, fizzled out as rising interest rates and other macro headwinds chilled the cryptocurrency market. Without a supply limit, Dogecoin couldn't be valued by its scarcity, as Bitcoin is. Without native support for smart contracts, Dogecoin couldn't be valued as a blockchain-based developer ecosystem like Ethereum (ETH -4.72%). That's why it struggled to recover even as Bitcoin and Ether bounced back.
Image source: Getty Images.
Yet Elon Musk, who named the Trump Administration's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after the meme coin, is still bullish on its growth potential. On June 1, the X user DogeDesigner posted that Musk once offered to eat a Happy Meal on live TV if McDonald's (MCD -0.68%) accepted Dogecoin. Musk reposted the tweet and acknowledged it was "true". So could that actually happen and breathe fresh life into this unloved cryptocurrency?
CRYPTO: DOGE
Key Data Points
Mainstream exposure hasn't boosted Dogecoin's price
A handful of major companies already accept Dogecoin payments. Musk allows its Tesla and SpaceX customers to use Dogecoin to buy the companies' branded merchandise (but not Tesla's electric cars or SpaceX's Starlink terminals).
Mark Cuban, another one of Dogecoin's early backers, allowed people to buy Dallas Mavericks tickets and merchandise with the meme coin. Amazon's Twitch, AMC Theaters, Microsoft, Newegg, LVMH's Tag Heuer, and AirBaltic also accept Dogecoin payments for certain products and services.
But just because Dogecoin is an available payment option doesn't mean most consumers are actually using it. Like other cryptocurrencies, Dogecoin's volatility makes it much less reliable than fiat currencies. Most consumers and businesses probably aren't eager to do business with a token that has fluctuated between $0.08 and $0.31 over the past 52 weeks.
So even if McDonald's accepts Dogecoin payments as a publicity stunt to get Elon Musk to eat a Happy Meal on TV, it probably wouldn't move the needle for the meme coin. That's probably why Musk's repost of DogeDesigner's tweet -- which references a comment he made in 2022 -- didn't boost Dogecoin's price as much as some of his own tweets.
Dogecoin might be doomed
Dogecoin didn't recover after its first ETFs were launched in late 2025 and 2026. Its supporters are trying to turn it into a developer-oriented token with Dogechain, a new Layer 2 (L2) solution built on Polygon's blockchain that supports smart contracts. However, it's still tiny compared to big developer ecosystems like Ethereum and Solana. Without those clear long-term catalysts, Dogecoin's price will likely sink lower -- even if big companies like McDonald's start accepting Dogecoin payments.
