Commonly viewed as a mere joke and popularly dubbed as a ‘meme-coin,’ the core developers of Dogecoin are set to change the narrative with the launch of the new Dogecoin update, v1.14.6.
The GitHub link that contains the checklist of what is to be achieved with the proposed v1.14.6 update to the network was circulated on 6 June.
Developed by Patrick Lodder, a core developer of the Dogecoin network, some of the guarantees of the v1.14.6 update to the network is to ensure the protection of users’ wallets on the network. The upgrade would also aim to fix the vulnerabilities common with the Bitcoin network that might exist within the Dogecoin network. In addition, Lodder stated that a goal to be met with the new upgrade is to ensure cheaper usage of the Dogecoin core wallet.
In a post made by Lodder on Reddit eight days ago, he confirmed that the upgrades to the Dogecoin network might be implemented by the end of June. He said,
“It is starting to look like we will really be able to do a release of 1.14.6 (by the) end of June. We’ll be focusing on enabling as many contributions to make it into the release, together with the network hardening I mentioned that now not just I but also chromatic is working on. I will make a tracker for the release so that everyone can see where we’re at.”
In view of an upgrade to the Dogecoin network, let’s take a look at the performance of the meme coin since it first launched.
Nine years of severe price fluctuations
Created around the popular “doge” Internet meme, the Dogecoin, forked from Litecoin was launched in December 2013. Hitting the crypto market at an index price of $0.0002047, the token registered an ATH of $0.7376 on 8 May 2021. Currently 85% down from its ATH, Dogecoin exchanged hands at $0.0795, at the time of writing.
Source:CoinMarketCap
Currently ranked number 10 on the list of cryptocurrencies with the largest market capitalization, at $10.5b, the market capitalization of the token grew by over 600,000% within the past nine years. According to data from CoinMarketCap, the token had a circulating supply of 132,670,764,300, at the time of writing.
Source:CoinMarketCap
Reacting to the news of the upgrade to the network, Dogecoin registered a 69.68% uptick in trading volume in the last 24 hours. However, with a 4% decline in price within the same window period. The spikes in trading volume indicated the increased distribution of the token in the last 24 hours.
Did growth come after five long years?
On-chain analysis revealed that the Dogecoin network started to experience some growth within the last four years.
Nine years after its launch, the number of unique addresses transacting the Dogecoin on a daily basis marked a high of 86,652 addresses on 9 March. At a 68% decline, at press time, this stood at 28,100.
Source: Santiment
Similarly, since its launch, Dogecoin recorded a high of 1.03t in transaction volume on 1 January 2019. Since then, the transaction volume for the token took on a steady decline. At press time, this stood at 725.81m.
Source: Santiment
In addition to the above, whale activity on the network started to mark some traction just a year ago. For transactions above $100k, the token saw a high of 3522 in transactions count on 31 January 2021. Taking on a steady decline since then, this was spotted at 60 at press time. For transactions over $1m, a high of 532 transactions was recorded on the same day last year. However, at the time of writing, this has registered a 98% drop.
Source: Santiment
