Leading memecoin and one of Elon Musk’s favorite cryptocurrencies Dogecoin (DOGE) trades on a strong bullish mood on Friday, down by over 7% since the previous session and losing almost 20% of its value over the past week. At the time of writing, DOGE/USD is trading around $0.17.

While the bearish trend in the wider crypto sector is one of the key reasons for the current slide lower, Dogecoin is also suffering on account of waning interest and confidence in it among investors. Despite the digital coin getting listed on leading crypto exchanges recently, criticism is on the rise for its limited applications beyond being used for making digital payments.

The concerns have been growing amid the rising popularity of other altcoins like Cardano (ADA), Polkadot (DOT) and Solana (SOL) that have several other use cases, generating significant interest from institutional and retail investors. In the emerging space of NFTs and DeFi, the leading memecoin has been unable to make a mark. In addition, it faces stiff competition from emerging memecoin Shiba Inu (SHIB) which also promises more versatility.

Dogecoin has come under additional pressure over the past few hours after one of its co-creators, Jackson Palmer, came down hard against the cryptocurrency market, labeling it “hyper-capitalist”. Palmer went on to state, “Despite claims of “decentralization”, the cryptocurrency industry is controlled by a powerful cartel of wealthy figures who, with time, have evolved to incorporate many of the same institutions tied to the existing centralized financial system they supposedly set out to replace.”

Meanwhile, Dogecoin could find some support from news about DOGE getting listed on one more crypto exchange – tZERO. The exchange has added the memecoin, bringing up its list of crypto offerings to 10 coins, a move that could potentially drive up some interest in trading DOGE.

Key Levels to Watch

On the 4-hour chart of DOGE/USD, moving averages and the MACD indicator are suggesting a strong bearish bias. However, the momentum indicator reveals some buying interest as well.

The price continues to remain weak below the key $0.20 level, and has broken below the pivot point at $0.21 and the immediate support at $0.19. The next key level of interest is the second support level which sits at $0.16 and could be tested in case selling pressure builds up further.