'Keep Dogecoin Absurd,' Dogecoin Creator Revisits His Message From 2014

What Happened: Billy Markus, creator of meme-based cryptocurrency Dogecoin DOGE/USD, recently re-iterated a message from 2014 reminding the community of DOGE’s best quality.

“DOGE is at its best when it’s funny,” said Markus, invoking a response from Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk.

Musk’s response came in the form of the ‘cheers’ emoji, signifying that he too was in agreement with Markus’s views on the need to “keep DOGE fun and absurd.”

“Dogecoin's best feature is the inherent absurdity of a fun internet meme based currency,” said Markus back in 2014.

“It started as a parody of the proliferation of silly altcoins that were trying so hard, pretending to be the future, with the full intention of making a quick buck.”

When Dogecoin became popular, it started to pave its unique path with a variety of causes like Doge4Kids and even a NASCAR sponsorship.

“This is the real strength of the coin,” said Markus. “If we get caught up in all the drama and greed and expectations of instant rewards and mud slinging and scapegoating and all the rest of that gunk, then we've just become the exact thing we were originally parodying. And that's sad. Really sad.”

Markus opined that the absurdity of Dogecoin is what makes it special and the reason that people who weren’t interested in cryptocurrency suddenly became interested.

Seven years later, Markus’s opinion hasn’t changed, but the value of the cryptocurrency he helped create has drastically increased.

Read also: Famed Short Seller Says Bitcoin Hasn't Bottomed Until Dogecoin Slips Below 1 Cent

Dogecoin was trading at $0.26 at the time of writing, representing a 128,600% increase in price since 2014 and a 5000% increase year-to-date. However, the cryptocurrency is down 64% from its all-time high of $0.73 earlier this year and has since lost nearly $70 billion in market cap.