KEY POINTS

  • DOGE saw a sharp increase in its price
  • The altcoin gained more utility with the launch of a new layer-2 platform
  • DOGE was trading up 2.54% at $0.08398

Dogecoin, the crypto asset created as a joke, is no laughing stock as its price has surged with the launch of the Ethereum-compatible layer-2 solution Dogechain, adding more utility to the altcoin and serving as a bridge for Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), Decentralized Finance (DeFi) and games.

Dogecoin showed a double-digit spike of 11.06% Tuesday following the official launch of Dogechain.

Despite a downturn in Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency by market cap and the broader crypto market, DOGE traded at $0.085 and briefly soared to $0.088 before firing down.

Dogechain, the recently launched blockchain platform that bridges DOGE so users could use it for NFTs, DeFi and games, among other things, is deemed responsible for Dogecoin's uptrend. However, Dogechain is not a layer-2 scaling solution for the DOGE and no Dogecoin core developer or creator was involved in the initiative.

Dogecoin Cryptocurrency Medallion
Dogecoin Creative Commons/Forextime.com/flickr.com

This means it is not built on top of DOGE but rather as a separate network founded on Polygon Edge, Polygon's custom software. The platform, however, is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual machine, meaning apps and games built on Ethereum can run on it.

In a Twitter thread Wednesday, the Dogecoin Foundation reiterated that the initiative is not an official Dogecoin project and clarified that layer-2 is not related to DOGE's blockchain explorer which bears the same name.

"Claims in paid media that Dogecoin launched a "Dogechain" test network are false. Neither @Dogecoin/@dogecoin_devs, nor @BillyM2k, @ummjackson or others associated with @DogecoinFdn are in any way affiliated with the token," the tweet read.

Typically, Dogecoin Foundation does not comment on things like this because "it tends to only amplify attention," the developer said in a follow-up tweet. However, it was forced to do so now since "multiple PR/media sites are reporting or insinuating that Dogecoin launched this token or its test network or is closely affiliated with it."

Despite this, chatter online about the launch of Dogechain may have worked wonders for the price of DOGE. While it was launched earlier this month, several influencers and crypto personalities on Twitter talked about its exponential growth recently.

As of 4:10 a.m. ET Wednesday, DOGE was trading up 2.54% at $0.08398 with a 24-hour volume of $1,912,308,674, according to the latest data from CoinMarketCap.

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