Dogecoin made headlines earlier today as a statement from Binance announcing the cryptocurrency’s listing caused prices to shoot to levels not seen since October 2018.

The announcement, which was published shortly after 3 am EST, was short and to the point:

“Binance will list Dogecoin (DOGE) and open trading for DOGE/BNB, DOGE/BTC, DOGE/USDT, DOGE/PAX, and DOGE/USDC trading pairs at 2019/07/05 12:00 PM (UTC). Users can now start depositing DOGE in preparation for trading.”

The Dogecoin (DOGE) market reacted to the news immediately, climbing more than 39% in just five minutes.

This was followed by an additional gain of 6.7% over the next two and a half hours, bringing DOGE prices to a YTD high of $0.004524 for a total gain of nearly 46% over the day.

The last time Dogecoin saw prices that high was back in late October 2018.

Dogecoin joke takes on a life of its own

Released in 2013, Dogecoin was created by Australian entrepreneur Jackson Palmer and Portland, Oregon software developer Billy Markus.

In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald last year, Palmer explained his reasoning behind the cheeky cryptocurrency.

“My whole point of Dogecoin was taking a jab at all these alt-coins that were coming on the scene — like Initial Coin Offerings are today — and, you know, basically making a cash grab.

“So I made the joke and it was me taking the piss out of really scammy cryptocurrency back then. But then it quickly turned into a legitimate thing and at that point, I was like, ‘Oh my god, now I feel responsible for this joke’. I feel responsible for this economy.”

The little crypto that could

The cheeky little cryptocurrency quickly gained a devoted following within the crypto community and, in January 2018, Dogecoin reached a market cap of nearly $2 billion.

During the same period, Dogecoin prices hit an all-time high of $0.0176 before losing more than 80% of its value and joining its crypto brethren in the ensuing Crypto Winter.

No matter how bad the cryptocurrency market got, Dogecoin refused to die.

In April of this year, Dogecoin got a much-needed boost when Elon Musk, the controversial CEO of both Tesla and SpaceX, publicly proclaimed his support for the cryptocurrency.

Dogecoin might be my fav cryptocurrency. It’s pretty cool. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 2, 2019

Dogecoin prices skyrocketed by more than 60% in the wake of Musk’s endorsement before retracing to $0.0027 territory.

Currently, Dogecoin is the #29 cryptocurrency on CoinMarketCap’s Top 100 list and is trading at right around $0.0038.