Celebrate World Dogecoin Day 0:41
(CNN) -
All dogecoins in circulation are now worth more than $ 53 billion after enthusiasts declared on social media April 20 as 'Doge Day', with the aim of boosting value of digital currency to new levels.
The price of a single dogecoin spiked as much as 20% on Tuesday to 42 cents on the dollar, approaching Friday's all-time high of 45 cents, according to data from CoinDesk.
On Twitter and Reddit, crypto enthusiasts posted memes featuring the dogecoin logo, a Shiba Inu dog, with the hashtag #DogeDay and # Doge420.
Social media users also made links between Doge Day and Marijuana Day, which is celebrated by consumers on April 20.
The popularity of dogecoin has exploded this year, fueled in part by the adoption of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies by mainstream businesses and investors.
Last week, the price of a single dogecoin doubled after Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk, its most prominent advocate and former public marijuana smoker, tweeted "Doge barking at the moon."
He also shared a photo of a painting by the Spanish artist Joan Miró, entitled "Dog barking at the moon."
Dogecoin is now the fifth most valuable cryptocurrency in the world, according to CoinMarketCap.
Strong demand for the virtual currency briefly brought Robinhood's crypto trading systems down on Thursday as the platform struggled to process a surge in buy orders.
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Created in 2013 as a joke by a couple of software engineers, the cryptocurrency doesn't have much use in the real world outside of a few niche markets, including tips to online artists.
Unlike bitcoin, which has set the number of coins available on the market at 21 million, dogecoin has 129 billion coins in circulation and will continue to make new blocks of coins available for mining each year.
That's part of the reason why one dogecoin costs less than $ 1, while each bitcoin costs about $ 55,000.
David Goldman and Diksha Madok contributed to this report.
Cryptocurrencies
