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What is Dogeday 4/20?

Supporters have dubbed 20 April as ‘Dogeday 4/20’, which is also International Weed Day. It is unclear who is behind his and why this date has been chosen, but Twitter and Reddit users are happily getting in on the action. Photo: Getty Images
Supporters have dubbed 20 April as ‘Dogeday 4/20’, which is also International Weed Day. It is unclear who is behind his and why this date has been chosen, but Twitter and Reddit users are happily getting in on the action. Photo: Getty Images (Yuriko Nakao via Getty Images)

The joke cryptocurrency token dogecoin (DOGE-USD) rallied on Tuesday against the dollar, as online fans celebrated "Dogeday 4/20."

Some want to push the price to $0.69 (£0.49), while others are hoping it will go as high as $1.

The currency crossed $0.4200 on Tuesday morning, before retreating to $0.3819, up about 2.2%.

Supporters have dubbed 20 April as "Dogeday 4/20," which is also International Weed Day. It is unclear who is behind this and why this date has been chosen, but Twitter and Reddit users are happily getting in on the action.

Snickers and Milky Way, manufactured by parent Mars Inc, have tweeted their support, as has online retailer Newegg.

"The excitement and momentum around cryptocurrency are undeniable, and the recent surge in Dogecoin value underscores the need to make it easier for customers to make purchases with this popular cryptocurrency," Newsweek quoted Andrew Choi, Newegg's senior brand manager, as saying.

Dogecoin rallied Tuesday morning. Chart: Yahoo Finance UK
Dogecoin rallied Tuesday morning. Chart: Yahoo Finance UK

One theory is that 20 April is Tesla (TSLA) founder Elon Musk's favourite day. He has long been a proponent of the currency.

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Musk has in the past sent out tweets about the cryptocurrency, first with just the word “Doge,” followed by “Dogecoin is the people’s crypto,” and “No highs, no lows, only Doge."

He also tweeted a Lion King meme of him holding up the dogecoin dog as if it were Simba.

And four days ago he tweeted: "Doge Barking at the moon", which boosted the cryptocurrency at the time.

Watch: What is bitcoin?

Twitter user @itsALLrisky, who has more than 50,000 followers and runs a cryptocurrency blog, tweeted:

"This #DogeDay is dedicated to the man, the myth, the legend, the Technoking of Tesla, the Imperator of Mars, Destroyer of Shorts, Master of Memes, King of Twitter, Humanity’s Best, the one and only:@ElonMusk"

They had also tweeted: "#Dogecoin is snowballing into a cultural phenomenon - Brands are accepting it as payment - Exchanges are listing it - Memes are being made about it - The media is talking about it - Your friends are asking you about it - Your dog reminds you of it EVERYDAY IS #DOGEDAY!"

READ MORE: The history of dogecoin, the joke currency that's worth more than Barclays and Lloyds

Some credit for all the attention doge is getting could go to Slim Jim, a report in Fortune explained.

"The packaged meat product latched on to Dogecoin-mania on its Twitter account last Wednesday (saying 'RT to send Doge to the moon!!'—the rallying cry among the r/WallStreetBets crowd for GameStop stock). The cry worked. Doge fans—and even other brands—jumped on the bandwagon quickly," the publication wrote.

Dogecoin takes its name and logo from the Shiba Inu dog in the “doge” meme that became popular on the internet in 2013, the year it was created. A pair of software engineers did so to satirise the growth of altcoins by making the doge internet meme into a cryptocurrency.

Photo: Twitter
Photo: Twitter

Dogecoin has soared more than 400% in the past week and by more than 5,000% since the start of the year. The rally has made the joke token the fifth most valuable cryptocurrency by market capitalisation. The total value of tokens in circulation is now over $52bn.

"As we saw with the GameStop frenzy earlier in the year, traders have once again adopted a game mentality, trying to propel the price higher using hashtags and rallying cries on internet forums," said Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.

She explained that demand has come from traders trying to game the system and those hoping to benefit from future price rises rather than use the coins as a means of exchange and said "investors should be extremely cautious about getting caught up in this herd mentality because dogecoin is very much a speculative bet whose valuation has no reliable basis."

Meanwhile, mainstream cryptocurrencies bitcoin (BTC-USD) and ethereum (ETH-USD) have come under selling pressure in the wake of Coinbase's (COIN) hotly anticipated IPO. Last week, Coinbase became the first major crypto firm to list on the Nasdaq (^IXIC).

Coinbase (COIN) does not list dogecoin and it is unclear if it will do so going forward.

It's website states: “Although doge is not available to trade, you can add it to your watchlist, read news and more with a Coinbase account."

Watch: What are the risks of investing in cryptocurrencies?