Over $600M Locked in Open Dogecoin Futures as DOGE Price Hits Highest Since April

Bitcoin's recent rapid rally has revived risk-taking in the crypto market, spurring investors to pour money into non-serious cryptocurrencies like dogecoin (DOGE), which was created as a joke 10 years ago.

DOGE, the world's leading meme cryptocurrency, has gained over 10% in the past 24 hours to trade above $0.10 for the first time since April, according to data tracked by TradingView. The prices has gained 27% in seven days, seemingly tracking bitcoin's surge to $44,000 from $38,000.

The notional open interest – or the dollar value locked in the number of active futures and perpetual futures contracts – tied to DOGE has risen by 58% to $625 million in one week, reaching the highest since Nov. 2, 2022, according to data source CoinGlass. That increase, alongside a rising price, is said to confirm the uptrend.

Funding rates on several exchanges have surged to an annualized 50% or more, indicating a steep premium in perpetual futures relative to spot prices, Velo Data data show. Positive rates indicate investor preference for long, or bullish, bets and reflect collective optimism that prices will likely increase.

Joke cryptocurrencies are high-beta assets with a history of moving in the direction of bitcoin, only more so. In other words, they behave as leveraged plays on the largest cryptocurrency.

Thus, investors should be watchful of potential extreme bullish action in DOGE relative to bitcoin as an indicator of speculative froth often observed at the tail end of the marketwide bullish trend.

DOGE's latest surge, though impressive, isn't necessarily a sign of excess greed, considering the DOGE/BTC ratio remains at bear-market depths.

A rapid surge in the ratio presaged BTC's April 2021 top above $60,000 and the market-wide FTX-induced panic of November 2022.