How to Buy Dogecoin Canada in 2022

Cryptoassets are a highly volatile unregulated investment product. 

Should I Buy Dogecoin?

Do you need to know anything about Dogecoin to invest successfully? Strictly speaking, the answer to this question is ‘no’. You could buy Dogecoin in Canada right now and benefit if the price goes up. But DOGE isn’t the only crypto out there: there are 19,000 other crypto! How do you choose? Get informed. Here’s what makes Dogecoin different:

• What makes Dogecoin stand out from other meme coins is that it has its own blockchain. Back in 2013, DOGE was created out a fork of Luckycoin, which was itself a fork of Litecoin. Most meme coins are ERC-20 tokens based on the Ethereum blockchain.
• When it comes to how the blockchain actually operates, Dogecoin uses a variant of the Proof-of-Work (PoW) system called ‘merged mining’ This means it uses far less electricity than standard PoW protocols: 0.12kWh per transaction, compared to Bitcoin’s 708kWh per transaction. Proof-of-Work protocols are now dated because of energy concerns. Ethereum, for example, is currently undergoing a major transformation to the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) protocol, which uses far less power.
• Dogecoin performs transactions quicker than Bitcoin or Ethereum but slower than the Ripple, Monero and XRM blockchains.
• There is no supply cap on DOGE as there is with many other crypto like Bitcoin. This means that potentially the value of DOGE will fall as more DOGE is mined. Founder Jackson Palmer has said that this uncapped format, which was based on the philanthropic decision to make DOGE available to everybody, was a mistake.
• 2,000 real-world businesses accept DOGE as payment.

Benefits of Buying Dogecoin

Core Community of DOGE Supporters

Ever since its launch in 2013 as a joke, DOGE has been supported by a loyal following. The Dogecoin Reddit page is legendary for the fervour of its supporters and the genuine sense of humour and community. In 2014, the Dogecoin community raised $50k to back the Jamaican bobsled team at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Water wells in Kenya were funded in the same year to the tune of $30k.

High Public Profile Could Offer Long-Term Price Support

Last year in 2021, Dogecoin was the most-Googled crypto in 23 US states. By comparison, market leaders Bitcoin and Ethereum were the most-Googled in only 8 US states apiece. Dogecoin currently has 3.1m followers on Twitter.

Judging by its decline in price since 2021, it would certainly be fair to judge that support for Dogecoin has lost some intensity. But over $500m of DOGE is currently traded every day. Dogecoin’s market capitalisation stands at $15bn. This charismatic crypto has strong international awareness. Compared to unknown meme tokens that never get off the ground, this makes Dogecoin worth looking at as a long-term speculative investment.

The Musk Price Factor

A key reason behind the 2021 rise of DOGE was the support of the world’s richest man, Tesla boss Elon Musk. Promoting DOGE to his 50m+ Twitter followers, Musk called himself the ‘Dogefather’ and said in May 2021 that his space exploration company, SpaceX, would send a payload of $40k DOGE to the moon as a part of a real-world mission. Until December, 2021, exchange Binance and Tesla ran a free competition offering a Tesla Model 3 and $50k of DOGE as prizes.

In 2022, Musk appears to have turned his attention elsewhere. But if he backs DOGE again, expect to see the price soar. In December, 2020, Musk tweeted ‘One word: Doge’ and the price rose 20% immediately. It could happen again.

Continued Technological Development

In August, 2021 the Dogecoin Foundation was re-established. This is a governing body tasked with keeping Dogecoin on its community-orientated vision, as well as guiding technological innovation. The Dogecoin Foundation features some big names including Elon Musk representative Jared Birchall and Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin, who is keen to explore how Dogecoin can switch to the more eco-friendly Proof-of-Stake authentication model. If it does switch, expect to see a rise in DOGE value as well as far more DOGE staking opportunities.

Follow the Big Players

Despite its popularity among retail investors (ie. everyday people), Dogecoin has the backing of big players. Crypto analysts CoinMarketCap report that 66% of DOGE is owned by ‘whales’ who are individuals or companies that own more than 1% of the circulating supply. In the last 7 days, $1.37bn of DOGE trade was conducted with transactions valued at over $100k.

Just because investors are big-time does not mean they will always get investing right. But it pays to be aware what the big players are doing; and they are doing the DOGE!

Ways of Buying Dogecoin

Buying Dogecoin with PayPal

Nowadays PayPal offers its own in-house crypto service. With it you can buy and sell major crypto like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETC), but you cannot move it out. As a result, exchanges tend to be ambivalent when it comes to PayPal. US users, for example, can top up their Crypto.com credit card with PayPal, but not their fiat account. Neither Bitbuy nor Binance currently accept PayPal as a means of fiat deposit.

Buy Dogecoin with Credit Card or Debit Card

Exchanges Crypto.com and Binance allow you to buy Dogecoin with credit card or debit card. Canadian exchange Bitbuy does not support credit card purchases, but it does allow you to transfer CAD direct from your bank account using Interac e-Transfer.

What is the Best Way to Buy Dogecoin?

As an established altcoin, you can buy Dogecoin in Canada with a variety of online vendors. The three main types of crypto vendor are brokers, centralised exchanges and decentralised exchanges.

Brokers

Brokers are crypto vendors that sell you crypto direct. Unlike exchanges, they do not create a marketplace for crypto trade. Brokers tend to be better regulated than exchanges but offer a smaller range of crypto.

Centralised Exchanges

All three crypto exchanges we have reviewed above — Bitbuy, Crypto.com and Binance — are centralised exchanges. This means that they offer a marketplace for crypto trading that is managed by a single entity. Centralised exchanges are good places to find Dogecoin trading opportunities at low commissions.

Decentralised Exchanges (DEXs)

Decentralised Exchanges are crypto marketplaces which generally offer an extensive range of the less well-known crypto, as well as big-name meme coins like Dogecoin and Shiba Inu. We recommend that crypto newbies stick with regulated centralised exchanges like Bitbuy before diving into the DEX world.

Dogecoin Price

DOGE is currently priced at around $0.12 USD. As you can see from the price chart below, DOGE peaked in May 2021, sparking hopes that it would reach the magic $1 USD mark. Since this time the price has fallen away. Since December 2021, the price has not budged from between $0.20 and $0.10.

Dogecoin’s current lack of price volatility is in sharp contrast to the dramas of 2021. In January, 2021 the price of DOGE rose 800% in one 24hr period. In April, 2021, $70bn of DOGE was traded in 24hrs following Elon Musk’s tweet of famous artist Miro’s depiction of a dog barking at the moon.

Seven years before that, in January 2014, DOGE was the most-traded crypto in the world.

Dogecoin Price Prediction

DOGE generated returns of over 1,000% in 2021. In value, it never quite reached the magic threshold of $1. But Dogecoin die-hards insist that one day it will.

A panel of 42 experts made price predictions for DOGE in 2021 for price comparison website Finder. The average prediction was that DOGE would reach $1.21 by 2025, but this figure was heavily influenced by one very bullish analyst. 80% of the panel agreed that Dogecoin was a bubble and the price of DOGE would collapse.

Well, the price of DOGE has fallen significantly from its all-time high of $0.74 in May 2021. But, for the last four months, it seems to have found some sort of stability between the $0.20 and $0.10 mark.

It is always worth remembering with Dogecoin that, unlike many meme coins, it is actually used in the real-world as payment (2,000 business globally). Originally, too, Dogecoin was used to tip other users on the internet, and its heritage as a tipping crypto (like Ethereum Classic) might stand it in good stead in the future. Currently the Reddit DOGE community is trying to get DOGE recognised as tipping currency on Twitter.

If Tesla boss Elon Musk starts tweeting about DOGE again, you can be sure the price will rise. If DOGE moves to Proof-of-Stake protocols, a price increase is likely too. If Bitcoin leads a crypto surge, it is likely that DOGE will follow. We would not predict with any confidence that DOGE will reach the $1 mark by the end of 2022. But there is certainly some life in the old dog yet!

How to Buy Dogecoin Safely?

Here’s a simple checklist on how to buy Dogecoin stock safely:

Use a Regulated Crypto Vendor
Canadian exchange Bitbuy, for example, is regulated by the Ontario Securities Commission as well as registered with Canadian Federal regulators FINTRAC.

Use a Crypto Vendor with Good Security
Look for exchanges, like BitBuy and Crypto.com, that keep client crypto in cold storage. Ensure the exchange is insured (Bitbuy, Crypto.com and Binance are all insured).

Avoid Crypto Trades From Your Crypto Wallet
As you grow in crypto experience, you can get on to crypto wallet purchases. Theoretically nothing can go wrong if you follow the instructions. But, if you get the public addresses of smart contracts wrong, you can end up firing funds onto the web with no way of getting them back. Stick with simple purchasing, as offered by BitBuy with fiat funds and Crypto.com as well as Binance with instant credit card buys.

How to Buy Dogecoin in Canada – Tutorial

Buying Dogecoin involves roughly the same process whichever exchange you use. In the guide below, we use Toronto-based Bitbuy as the example.

Step 1: Open an Account

Visit the BitBuy website. Click on the ‘Get Started’ button. Next, select the ‘Personal Account’ button and enter your email address and Canadian mobile number. You also need to create a username and password.

Step 2: Verification

As a regulated exchange, Bitbuy is obliged to check your personal details as well as assess your knowledge of the risks of crypto investment. This process can seem a little intimidating. But 400,000 fellow Canadian clients of Bitbuy have managed it well enough, so our advice is to be patient and soldier on through.

Bitbuy offers 3 levels of verification:

1. Automatic verification
   By simply entering a few personal details, your identity will be checked by a third-party verification process. If all goes well, you will be verified instantly.
2. Express Verification
   If the automatic verification process throws up any queries, you will need to scan your driver’s license/ID card as well as take a selfie for approval.
3. Manual Verification
   If you run into problems with Express Verification, you will need to upload scans of your ID for approval.

Step 3: Deposit Funds

Once verified, you can deposit CAD using Interac e-Transfer (minimum: $50 CAD) or wire transfer (minimum: $20,000 CAD).

Step 4: Buy DOGE

Find the Express Trade page on Buybit under the ‘Products’ menu option at the top of the interface. Select Dogecoin. Enter the amount of CAD you want to spend. Press the ‘Buy Dogecoin’ button at the bottom of the dialogue box. (The image below shows Bitcoin, but the process is identical with DOGE):

Cryptoassets are a highly volatile unregulated investment product. 

How to Sell Dogecoin

Do not worry about getting stuck with Dogecoin when it comes time to sell. Beginners note: you do not need a crypto wallet to offload your DOGE. Buybit will buy your Dogecoin from you whenever you want (at 0.2% commission on the transaction); Crypto.com and Binance will also buy back your DOGE if buy with them. You simply select Dogecoin in your portfolio and select the selling option.

Conclusion

Dogecoin may have come off the boil since 2021, but it retains a loyal following and a high public profile. As the original meme coin, it has stood the test of time. A small investment in Dogecoin will deal with any fears you have of missing out on a dramatic price increase. But be sure to balance your DOGE investment with other crypto, and further ensure that your total crypto investment is no more than 1-5% of your total assets.

Deciding how to buy Dogecoin in Canada boils down to where to buy Dogecoin in Canada. We have reviewed three top crypto exchanges. For Canadian crypto newbies, we recommend Bitbuy.

Although the selection of crypto is small compared to larger exchanges and there are no crypto financing options, Bitbuy has four powerful attractions for investors looking to buy Dogecoin in Canada. First and foremost, Bitbuy is a Canadian operation, based in Toronto. Secondly, it is regulated by the Ontario Securities Commission. Thirdly, Bitbuy only charges 0.2% commission on crypto trades. Fourthly, you can deposit CAD easily using bank transfer or Interac e-Transfer.

Cryptoassets are a highly volatile unregulated investment product. 

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