WallStreetBets craze pushes dogecoin up 5x in 24 hours

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Dogecoin-the cryptocurrency based on a meme about an over-enthusiastic Shiba Inu dog-reached an all-time record price of 4 cents on Thursday evening. That represents an incredible fivefold increase over the preceding 24 hours. The cryptocurrency was trading for less than a penny on Wednesday evening.

Dogecoin's rally appears to be connected to the WallStreetBets phenomenon. The subreddit WallStreetBets has been the nerve center of an online movement to pump up the value of GameStop and a handful of other stocks in an effort to bankrupt hedge funds that had taken big short positions in the stocks. GameStop's value has risen nearly fivefold since the start of the week-and more than sixtyfold since last summer.

On Saturday morning, a Twitter account called WSB Chairman (which isn't officially associated with the WallStreetBets subreddit) tweeted: "has Doge ever been to a dollar?" The answer to that question is "no," but some members of the WSB community apparently decided to try to change that.

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