Yahoo Finance Dogecoin surges 30% after listing on Coinbase Pro and Musk tweet
Dogecoin (DOGE-USD) rose sharply after cryptocurrency exchange platform Coinbase announced it will begin accepting inbound transfers of the joke token that also continues to receive support from Tesla (TSLA) chief Elon Musk.
The crypto was up 30% on Wednesday morning, trading at $0.42 (£0.3).
Musk, responding to the news about Coinbase, retweeted a picture that shows dogecoin taking over the global financial system, and said: "It's inevitable."
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 1, 2021
"One of the most common requests we receive from customers is to be able to trade more assets on our platform," Coinbase said in a blog post.
Trading will begin on or after 9am Pacific Time on 3 June if liquidity conditions are met, it said, adding that "unlike bitcoin, which is designed to be scarce, dogecoin is intentionally abundant — 10,000 new coins are mined every minute and there is no maximum supply."
Dogecoin had also gotten a boost earlier when, over the weekend, crypto portfolio management app Blockfolio asked Musk to create a hot tub heated by dogecoin, to which the crypto supporter replied: "great idea."
Musk has been a dogecoin supporter for a while now, tweeting about it regularly.
Michael Stark, research analyst at broker Exness, told Yahoo Finance UK: "Coinbase's listing of dogecoin has boosted sentiment. However, the key driver behind the uptick in buying today is Elon Musk's tweet of a meme, claiming that Dogecoin's takeover is 'inevitable'."
"Musk's tweets typically have a strong effect on the prices of cryptocurrencies given his very large following and high profile in the crypto community."
"Looking more generally, though, you could argue that doge just needed a catalyst, since within the last few weeks it has increasingly been added to crypto interest schemes offered by various exchanges," he said.
Meanwhile, mainstream crypto bitcoin (BTC-USD) ticked up roughly 1%, trading at $37,186, continuing to recover from an earlier sell-off, while ethereum (ETH-USD) was up 0.8% to trade at $2,669
"There are still no signs of life returning, and volatility is falling on a daily basis," said chief market analyst at Ava Trade, Naeem Aslam.
"It seems like the bitcoin price may continue to consolidate at its range of 30K to 40K for a little longer. For bitcoin bulls, this is not an ideal situation because they will like to see bitcoin's price gaining its strength back."
Watch: What is bitcoin?
Stark had earlier said: "At the moment, there is no evidence of a large participant wanting to buy more at these prices, but equally there's no immediate sign of a further strong drop based on sentiment and volumes."
"This might be the area of the reversal to the upside but it's probably still too early for many traders to act."
As cryptos get more mainstream acceptance, some 14% of financial advisers have added them to their clients’ portfolios or are recommending it to them, MarketWatch reported, citing a survey by the Financial Planning Association in March.
"Investors may also be drawn to cryptocurrencies lately because they view them as a hedge against inflation," the report said, adding: "investors in cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, which has a limited supply like gold or silver, could have a better shot at earning more money as investors flock to them"
Watch: What are the risks of investing in cryptocurrency?
