Trading volume for Dogecoin (DOGE) increased by more than 13 times during the second quarter of 2021, nearly tagging $1 billion daily.
According to data compiled by Coinbase and reported by Business Insider, Dogecoin trading volumes soared 1,250% between April and June, with $995 million worth of DOGE changing hands daily on average during the quarter.
By comparison, Dogecoin’s average daily volume for the first quarter was $74 million.
Dogecoin started the year priced at just $0.004 and saw its first uptick in early February when prices jumped 50% when Tesla CEO Elon Musk embarked on his Twitter-shilling campaign in support of the meme coin.
A massive rally was to follow as Musk ramped up the Dogecoin hysteria, sending the Shiba Inu-themed coin to an all-time high of $0.731 on May 8. The move culminated in a whopping 18,000% gain since the beginning of the year.
Despite many crypto commentators attributing Dogecoin’s meteoric 2021 performance to Twitter-shilling from Musk, Business Insider speculated that Dogecoin’s impressive performance would not have been possible without the spate of DOGE listings on major exchanges witnessed during Q2 — including Gemini and eToro in May, and Coinbase in June.
According to Coinbase’s data, the second quarter also saw global cryptocurrency trading volume increase by 32% overall, with nearly $19 billion worth of digital assets changing hands daily. The data suggests that DOGE represented more than 5% of combined crypto volume during Q2.
However, in its quarterly cryptocurrency report, GoinGecko estimates roughly $81 billion worth of digital assets were traded daily during Q2, indicating DOGE represented 1.2% of the quarterly crypto volume.
Related: Triple-digit gains make Dogecoin and Ethereum Classic the top performers of Q2
Despite the record rally, Dogecoin has suffered extreme losses since its all-time high, having plummeted 75.3% from its May 8 all-time high of $0.181, according to CoinGecko. However, DOGE is still up 4,425% since the start of 2021.
The Tesla CEO appears to have returned to his DOGE-shilling ways, changing his Twitter profile picture to don “Doge-eyes” on Sunday to show his ongoing support for Dogecoin.
While DOGE quickly spiked 18% over two hours in response to Musk’s new profile image on Sunday, its gains were quickly erased, with the meme coin now trading 2.5% higher than it was prior to Musk changing his profile picture.