Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency that started as a joke, is now in the top five digital currencies with a market value of approximately $ 49 billion, according to CoinGecko.
Created as a parody in 2013, Dogecoin is based on the “Doge” meme, which depicts a Shiba Inu dog. On Friday, dogecoin hit a record high when it surpassed 28 cents and is trading around 38.5 cents as of Friday at 11:40 a.m. EST, according to CoinGecko. Dogecoin is up 400% this week.
So what does billionaire crypto bull Mark Cuban think of the sudden surge?
“I have no idea what it means,” Cuban told CNBC Make It. “But I do know that supply and demand is unbeaten. So it will find its level.”
In March, Cuban announced that its NBA team, the Dallas Mavericks, will be accepting dogecoin for purchases, and over the past month, Mavericks sales in dogecoin are up 550%, Cuban tweeted on Tuesday.
“We’ve now sold over 122,000 Doge’s merchandise!” Cuban said on Twitter. “We will never ever sell a single Doge.”
To understand dogecoin’s recent rally, some speculate that it is the result of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase that went public on Wednesday, which also led to a rise in bitcoin and ether prices. Others attribute the price hike to recent tweets from Tesla CEO Elon Musk nodding to the popular crypto slang phrase ‘to the moon’.
Cuban said in February that dogecoin has no intrinsic value, but he “bought a few dollars worth” for his 11-year-old son Jake.
Regardless, Cuban likes to invest in dogecoin.
“If I had to choose between buying a lottery ticket and #Dogecoin … I would buy #Dogecoin,” Cuban tweeted in February. “But please don’t ask me to choose between it and something else.”
Cuban is an outspoken supporter of cryptocurrencies. He owns a wallet of bitcoin, Ethereum and other digital coins of his own and has invested in many companies in the space.
This story has been updated to add that dogecoin is up 400% this week.
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