Was Crypto Clown Dogecoin’s 20% Pump a Dodgy April Fool’s Joke?

The crypto sphere was awash with gags on April Fool’s day, mostly from rival clans having a dig at each other. What would have been more serious is a manipulated pump for an altcoin and it just so happens that this appears to have occurred with crypto clown Dogecoin.

A Dodgy Pump For Doge?

After a month flat-lining DOGE lifted off yesterday in one huge spike that propelled its price to a new 2019 high of $0.00253 (60 satoshis). The 20% pump caused daily volume to surge from $20 million to $50 million with most of it on Gate.io and ZB.com. It is the biggest single move for Dogecoin since mid-December but was it a coincidence coming on April first?

The twitter feed for the Litecoin offshoot, forked in 2013, is as usual populated by puerile memes involving Shiba Inu dogs, moons and lambos with very little of substance, like the coin itself. The only recent tweet of note was one admitting that the project is in need of a CEO, but the candidates are comedy;

We have listened to your concerns. We have decided that Dogecoin does need a CEO. Someone who can lead us into the future while maintaining the core values of what we are.

Below are the candidates, vote wisely.@VitalikButerin @SatoshiLite @elonmusk @MarshallHayner

— Dogecoin (@dogecoin) April 1, 2019

The Reddit feed was even more skeptical though some did make a little profit on the pump with comments including;

“Any idea about what’s happens? April joke? Pump and Dump?” … “I made money joke or not I cashed in” … “pump and dump. 100%. The signs have been in this sub for weeks, that there was a contingency planning this. And here it is. ” … “Please tell me this isn’t some sick Doge coin April Fools joke. “

The community discord admin and Dogecoin core dev ‘migidragon’ confirmed the pump and dump;

“It’s a planned, coordinated pump. It’s been talked about and ‘primed’ here for the last few weeks. Expect a dump soon.”

The only semi-serious announcement from the project was that the Blockchain Education Network (BEN), Doge’s education arm, was renaming to focus only on this coin;

To recognize the one true blockchain, we are REBRANDING by flipping the "B" in BEN to become DEN – the Dogecoin Education Network!

We now teach only @dogecoin and work w/ Dogecoin-based projects. We also only accept donations in $DOGE and will launch an IEO built on Dogecoin🐶🎓 pic.twitter.com/vhKg9FaC2k

— BEN (@BlockchainEdu) April 1, 2019

So it appears that yes, the crypto industry’s clown is still fooling around, but 20% is still no joke when your altcoin becomes the top performer in the top one hundred, albeit very briefly.

More April Fool Shenanigans

Other tomfoolery took over the twitter-sphere yesterday as crypto analyst ‘fil₿fil₿’ joked that he had converted to a Bitcoin Cash maximalist;

Had considered doing april fools suggesting that id converted to BCH maximalist.

high risk – low reward.

Realised the fool is already on you if youre one so happy April fool Bcashers.

— filbfilb (@filbfilb) April 1, 2019

While Vitalik Buterin was pictured in front of a huge Justin Sun billboard advertising his rival;

https://twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/1112581840630484993

The last laugh, at least today, has been on Ethereum though as Tron has managed a 24 hour gain of over 9% while ETH has not moved. Markets in general are still trending up and most altcoins are in the green as we leave behind the pumps and pranks and get on with things in the land of crypto.

Image from Shutterstock