DOGE faces "identification crisis": DOGE falls 23% over the week, far exceeding Bitcoin and Ethereum, is the meme leader narrative failing?

After last week's flash crash, DOGE became the worst-performing asset among the Top 20 Crypto Assets, with a weekly fall of up to 23%, trading below $0.19, far exceeding the approximately 10% fall of Bitcoin and Ethereum. Experts believe that DOGE's weak rebound is mainly due to its excessive sensitivity to market sentiment as a Meme coin and its “identity crisis” in the increasingly corporatized world of crypto. As new Meme coins continue to emerge, the issue of DOGE's lack of practical use cases has become more prominent.

Market Sentiment Dominates: DOGE Leads the Decline Among Major Coins

Despite Bitcoin and Ethereum rebounding about 10% amid market turmoil, DOGE, as the ninth largest Crypto Asset, saw a fall of 23%, highlighting the vulnerability of meme coins in a bear market.

· The price performance varies greatly: the latest quote for Bitcoin is about 108,042 USD, while the trading price for Ethereum is 3,878 USD. In contrast, the fall of DOGE is nearly twice as much, indicating its weaker resilience.

· Emotional Whip Effect: Maja Vujinovic, CEO of digital assets at Ethereum financial company FG Nexus, pointed out: “DOGE's rebound is insufficient because meme tokens are more easily driven by emotional fluctuations. When fear spreads, they are usually the first to lose momentum.”

· Reduced shock resistance: She added that DOGE is showing “weaker shock resistance” as it is more heavily impacted during market contractions due to soft on-chain demand and a predominance of speculative holders.

Experts Question: Is DOGE Facing an “Identity Crisis”?

In addition to market sentiment, some experts believe that DOGE is facing an unprecedented identification dilemma in the current stage of the Crypto Assets industry.

· No longer a purely speculative asset: Jonathan Morgan, the chief crypto analyst at Stocktwits, believes that DOGE “is no longer the purely speculative asset it once was.” He pointed out that DOGE even has its own stock market digital asset finances, which has put its identification in crisis.

· Detaching from the current Meme coin culture: Morgan questions whether DOGE still belongs to the “current Meme coin culture.” He states that despite DOGE's massive market value, “Degen” traders seeking the Meme coin craze are looking for quick profit opportunities from platforms like Pump.fun and the constantly emerging new Meme coins, rather than the relatively mild DOGE.

Lack of Practicality: Hollow Narratives Struggle to Sustain Long-Term Uptrends

Despite the brief rebound of DOGE at the end of 2024 and the beginning of this year due to the influence of Elon Musk, its core flaw of lacking practical application scenarios continues to weigh down its performance.

· The distant historical peak: DOGE price is still far below its record of 0.7316 dollars in 2021.

· Application narrative absence: Vladislav Ginzburg, founder and CEO of software company OneSource, stated that the lack of real use cases remains a problem for DOGE. He mentioned that there were rumors that Elon Musk might consider using DOGE as a payment option for X (formerly Twitter), but “in the new regulatory environment, this narrative seems to be absent.”

· The vision of “serving the people” has not been realized: DOGE was originally created as a joke, but later gained a fervent following due to Musk's endorsement. Musk has claimed to like it because it “belongs to the people” and has praised it as a serious currency for payments, but this has yet to be realized.

Conclusion

DOGE has performed poorly during this market correction, exposing the extreme vulnerability of Meme coins in the face of macro risks and shifts in sentiment. As the crypto industry matures, assets lacking real application scenarios and clear value positioning will find it increasingly difficult to gain sustained institutional and mainstream attention. Unless DOGE can find a true reason for existence (raison d'être), it will struggle to achieve significant growth again. For investors, the high-risk characteristics of the Meme coin sector require heightened vigilance.

Disclaimer: This article is for news information only and does not constitute any investment advice. The crypto market is highly volatile, and investors should make decisions cautiously.