Doge Day: Cryptocurrency Bets Surge to $2B as Dogecoin Hits 2021 High

Dogecoin (DOGE) has soared to its highest level since December 2021, reaching 22 cents on Thursday amidst a surge in trading volumes and futures open interest. The spike in price and interest comes amid speculation within the Dogecoin community about the potential integration of the meme-based cryptocurrency on the social media platform X. This speculation was fueled by discussions regarding X's new payment branch securing additional licences in the United States, potentially paving the way for crypto payments on the platform. While Dogecoin tends to react to developments related to companies associated with Elon Musk, such as X or Tesla, there has been no official confirmation from X regarding the integration of DOGE as a payment option. Nonetheless, trading volume for DOGE surged to $7 billion in the past 24 hours, up from an average of $3 billion earlier in the week, while futures open interest across exchanges rose to nearly $2 billion, indicating growing bets on price volatility.