The original meme currency turned global payments network.
A proof-of-work cryptocurrency forked from Litecoin in 2013, originally created as a joke, now one of the most widely-held and merchant-accepted digital assets.
- Founded
- December 2013
- Team
- Created by Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer; ongoing development by the Dogecoin Foundation and the Dogecoin Core development team
- Category
- Layer 1 · Payments · Meme
Dogecoin launched in December 2013 as a satirical fork of Litecoin, complete with the Shiba Inu mascot and Comic Sans branding. Despite its joke origins, it gained genuine traction as a tipping currency on Reddit and Twitter and remains one of the most recognizable brands in cryptocurrency.
The network uses Scrypt-based proof-of-work and merge-mining with Litecoin, sharing the same security model. Unlike Bitcoin, Dogecoin has no hard supply cap — roughly 5 billion new DOGE are mined per year, creating a low and predictable inflation rate.
Dogecoin saw a major surge in attention and adoption beginning in 2021, driven by endorsements from public figures and integration into payment options at major merchants. The Dogecoin Foundation, formally relaunched in 2021, coordinates protocol stewardship alongside the Dogecoin Core development team.
Dogecoin is an open-source digital currency based on the "Doge" meme that functions as a peer-to-peer medium for fast payments and digital tipping. Unlike projects backed by corporate entities, its value is driven by a global community, and the project is managed by a decentralized group of volunteers and the non-profit Dogecoin Foundation rather than a formal company. Originally created in 2013 by software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer as a market parody, the project held no public sale or venture capital rounds. The network operates as a fork of LuckyCoin, which itself was a fork of Litecoin, using a proof of work consensus mechanism.