Dogecoin turns 12 years old today.

On December 6, 2013, Billy Marcus and Jackson Palmer played a prank—they used a Shiba Inu avatar to poke fun at the then-booming cryptocurrency scene. And what happened? This joke project now has a market cap of $22 billion, firmly sitting in CoinMarketCap's top ten rankings.

The most interesting part is, their official X account bio still displays the line: "Elon Musk thinks we are very cool."

It's true. Over the years, Musk has given Dogecoin plenty of shoutouts—a single tweet from him can send the price skyrocketing. Sometimes it soars, sometimes it tanks, all depending on his mood.

Looking back now, Dogecoin has long become more than just a meme. It’s become part of crypto culture—even though there’s nothing particularly groundbreaking about its technology and its real-world use cases are limited, its branding power and strong community engagement are undeniable.

From 2013 to now, this case proves one thing: the crypto market has never been purely rational. Data is important, but emotion and consensus sway the trends even more. For a joke to last 12 years, it’s not because of a whitepaper—it’s because of collective memory.