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SEANA SMITH: Let's talk about the crypto markets.
And this time, it's not Bitcoin that we're focusing on.
We're going to talk about Dogecoin and Ethereum.
But first, let's start with Dogecoin, because that has
been a huge story this week.
We want to bring in Dan Roberts for a little bit more on this.
And Dan, we saw this massive surge.
Some of this being attributed to a few tweets by Elon Musk.
But help me understand what exactly is going
on here, because from my understanding,
it's a cryptocurrency that was started as a joke.
DAN ROBERTS: That's right, Seana, it was started as a joke
and nothing has really changed.
I mean, people call it a meme crypto.
Of course, at this point, if you've used the internet
at all, you know what doge is.
It's that Shiba Inu meme saying things like, much wow.
And it is up 700% in 2021 so far.
You mentioned the Elon Musk tweets.
He has done it quite a few times.
And that certainly has added fuel to the fire.
But already, Dogecoin has really been
kind of abuzz on social media.
That's what's driven the price higher.
And actually, amid that GameStop and AMC madness
last week, when Robinhood had to temporarily halt instant buying
of cryptocurrencies, it turned off that feature
for Bitcoin and Dogecoin.
So that gives you a sense, amid kind
of all the cryptocurrencies there are,
those were the two that were rising so suddenly
and frantically that Robinhood decided, wait a minute,
we gotta turn off this feature that
allows customers instant access to bank transfers.
But it is a meme cryptocurrency.
There's not a company or a real practical application
behind it.
But you can buy it and trade it on a number
of big mainstream exchanges.
Not Coinbase.
And people are making real money off this.
It's funny, you know, I did an explainer just reminding people
the origins.
It was created as a joke in 2013.
And I was blown up over the last 24 hours
on Twitter by people saying, how dare you!
It's not a joke.
The money I've made isn't a joke!
It's like, OK, it was started as a joke.
That's just a fact.
But again, people have bought it in the last few weeks
and already sold it and made real money here.
But Elon Musk knows what he's doing.
He has cautioned that the tweets about Dogecoin are a joke,
but that doesn't stop the price from going
up when he tweets about it.
SEANA SMITH: Certainly doesn't.
People get excited it seems like about anything
that Elon Musk has tweeted.
We've seen it with several memes here
over the last couple of weeks.
Dan, what about Ethereum?
I talked about that in the intro.
It's up a little bit today.
What, up just around 4 and 1/2%.
But this week, it's been another huge gainer.
DAN ROBERTS: Yeah, that's right.
And Seana, earlier today, Ethereum
hit a new all-time high, around $1,741.
You know, it's the token of Ethereum.
And the way I always explain it to people
is, if you understand even the basics of Bitcoin
and you understand that there's something called the Bitcoin
blockchain, Ethereum is a separate blockchain that
was specifically designed really to be
a better Bitcoin blockchain.
It's specifically made for decentralized apps or DAPs
to be built on the Ethereum chain.
And the reason the price has gone up so much recently,
is there have been a ton of new use cases and companies that
aim to make use of DeFi, decentralized finance, which is
really just the latest buzzy way to say what it's always been
for, which is financial applications that
cut out the middleman.
They are decentralized.
And all of these exciting new projects
are being built on Ethereum, not on the Bitcoin blockchain.
Also, the real price action today is probably tied
to what's happening on Monday.
This coming Monday you're going to see
CME launch Ether Futures.
And actually back in 2017 when CME launched Bitcoin futures,
you saw a same kind of price hike
happen to Bitcoin in the days leading up to the launch.
So we'll see what happens with Ether on Monday
and we'll see if big institutions
dump their Ethereum after CME launches the Futures.
You hope not, or you will see big movement with price.