The total value of the dogecoins in circulation is nearly $50 billion — not bad for a digital currency that started as a joke.
If I mint 50,000,000,000 OhSighCoins, give away all but one for free("Airdrop"), and trade one for $1, that is not really a good indication that there are $50B in OhSighCoins circulating.
Of course not, OhSighCoins are surely worth at least $2 each!
Last 24hours DogeCoin had trading volume of $40Billion so perhaps not a good comparison ?
Depends on how many people were involved in the trading. To pick a contrived example, suppose the only two transactions on the ledger were me buying 1e-9 dogecoins for $1, then you and me swapping forty dogecoins. That situation would match the circumstances you described. Kinda what this article is about actually.
on what basis should anyone believe such a ludicrous number represents legitimate skin-in-game volume and not a handful of fee-free bots trading SQL queries back and forth without ever touching a fiat ramp?
none of these self-reported volume numbers should be considered remotely realistic. exchanges have every incentive to cook their metrics in favor of "volume" to draw in fresh meat.
Same thing can said of the stock market. Algo trading or not, dogecoin has had lot of activity since Jan, especially post musk making it main stream.