Bitcoin and cryptocurrency prices have soared across the board over the last week, with the combined crypto market capitalization again passing the $2 trillion level.
The price of the meme-based, somewhat satirical dogecoin—adopted this year as a pet project of Tesla
Dogecoin’s rally comes after Mark Cuban, the billionaire technology investor and owner of the Dallas Mavericks, called dogecoin the “strongest” cryptocurrency for payments—with Musk then agreeing with him.
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Telsa chief executive Elon Musk has helped dogecoin break into the cryptocurrency top ten this year, … [+]
“[Dogecoin is] a medium that can be used for the acquisition of goods and services,” Cuban told CNBC this week. “The community for doge is the strongest when it comes to using it as a medium of exchange.”
“I’ve been saying this for a while,” Musk replied via Twitter.
Both Musk and Cuban have repeatedly expressed their support for the meme-based bitcoin rival dogecoin in recent months with Cuban accepting dogecoin as payment for Mavericks merchandise in March and Musk’s rocket company SpaceX planning a “DOGE-1 Mission to the Moon” early next year.
This week, Cuban announced his Texas basketball team will offer “special pricing” for dogecoin payments as part of the Mavericks’ summer sale.
The dogecoin price, after soaring to over 70 cents in May on the back of a Musk and influencer-fueled rally, crashed over 70% before rebounding this month along with the bitcoin price and most other major cryptocurrencies.
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The dogecoin price has rallied over the last month, climbing alongside bitcoin and most other major … [+]
Dogecoin is up almost 10,000% on this time last year after speculators began piling into the Shiba Inu dog-based cryptocurrency in January but the memecoin has since taken on a life of its own, with a dedicated community emerging, in part thanks to the support of the likes of Musk and Cuban.
“[Dogecoin] is just fun,” Cuban told talk show host Ellen DeGeneres in April. “But the weird part about it [is that] it went from being a cryptocurrency joke to now becoming something that’s becoming a digital currency.”
Last month, speaking during the Crypto Council for Innovation’s ₿ Word event, Musk elaborated on ideas that had previously been floated to upgrade dogecoin via ethereum to “max transaction rates and lower transaction costs.”
“There may be some merit in combining something like ethereum and dogecoin,” Musk said.
