On Apr. 2, 2019, Elon Musk posted a message on X that would eventually reshape an entire corner of crypto. "Dogecoin might be my fav cryptocurrency. It's pretty cool." Nobody paid much attent
On Apr. 2, 2019, Elon Musk posted a message on X that would eventually reshape an entire corner of crypto.
"Dogecoin might be my fav cryptocurrency. It's pretty cool." Nobody paid much attention then as the post gathered just over 11,000 likes.
Dogecoin (DOGE) was trading at around $0.003.
Anyone who put $1,000 in the meme coin that day walked away with roughly 333,333 DOGE. Today, with Dogecoin trading at approximately $0.077, that position is worth around $25,666.
A return of over 2,500% from a four-figure investment made on the back of a throwaway tweet.
Related: This is what a $1,000 investment in $TRUMP coin looks like today
The real story is not the current number, it is what that position was worth at its peak.
When Dogecoin hit its all-time high (ATH) of $0.7376 in May 2021, those same 333,333 coins were worth nearly $246,000. A $1,000 investment had become nearly a quarter million dollars in just over two years.
That run was, in large parts, Musk-fueled from start to finish. He kept posting about the cryptocurrency. In May 2021 he appeared on Saturday Night Live with Dogecoin front and center.
Each mention sent the price higher. Each new wave of retail buyers arrived later than the last.
Trending on TheStreet RoundtableSince May 2021, Dogecoin has never come close to recapturing that high. It had a brief revival in late 2024 when speculation around Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, the DOGE acronym was not accidental, pushed the price back toward $0.48. That faded too.
Today Dogecoin sits near $0.077, down roughly 90% from its peak. The DOGE-1 SpaceX lunar mission, which was supposed to send the coin literally to the moon, has been delayed repeatedly and is now tentatively scheduled for September 2026.
Musk's influence over the price has visibly diminished, when he posted an AI-generated video of himself as the ‘Doge father’ in March 2026, the price barely moved.
More on Elon Musk:The gap between Dogecoin and Bitcoin tells the broader story of this cycle. While Bitcoin hit a new ATH above $126,000 last year before pulling back, Dogecoin has not come close to its 2021 peak.
The meme coin trade still works, but it works less reliably every time, and the window to exit at the top keeps getting narrower.
That $1,000 from 2019 is still worth $25,666. For anyone who held all the way through, that is a 2,500% return.
But for anyone who bought near the top in May 2021, it is a 90% loss. Same coin, same tweet, entirely different outcome depending on the day you arrived.
Related: Nearly 1 million $TRUMP coin buyers lost $3.8 billion
