Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE) is one of the most popular meme coins today with a market cap of $24 billion. And that's after a sharp 50% drop year to date.

Is now the time to load up on Dogecoin? There's one number I track regularly to gauge how attractive Dogecoin is for aggressive long-term investors seeking maximum growth.

Top 10 stocks to invest in

As a meme coin, Dogecoin's price movements can vary wildly on a short-term basis, often with little obvious reason behind its price movements. Its volatility has correlated very closely with other major cryptocurrencies like Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) and Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC), with some relationship with traditional equity market swings as well. But when it comes to whether Dogecoin is a good investment for long-term investors, its network transaction volume is a telling metric.

Dogecoin has seen more and more integrations that grant it additional transactional utility both as a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency and a means of trade for a growing ecosystem of decentralized applications (dApps). Network transaction count is a great gauge of success for Dogecoin's ability to become more than just a meme coin with debatable intrinsic value.

April's transaction count has plummeted to multimonth lows. According to CoinMarketCap, Dogecoin's trading volume spiked to $40 billion on November 11, 2024. Five months later, the 24-hour volume is down to $1 billion.

As one of the largest meme coins, Dogecoin's community is arguably its biggest strength. Yet after the sudden price decline, usage of Dogecoin among its community has fallen tremendously.

Dogecoin may still be a great speculative investment for very aggressive growth investors with some extra cash. But with transaction volumes falling more than 97% versus their recent peaks, it's the cryptocurrency still doesn't have much value apart from its meme coin status. Its long-term price trajectory is incredibly difficult to model.

Buying Dogecoin today is like buying a lottery ticket. That's a fine use of extra disposable income, but make sure to set your expectations accordingly.

Should you invest $1,000 in Dogecoin right now?

Before you buy stock in Dogecoin, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Dogecoin wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $496,779!* Or when Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $659,306!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 787% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 152% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks

*Stock Advisor returns as of April 10, 2025