Yahoo Finance Mark Cuban boasts Mavericks are largest Dogecoin merchant in the world
Two days after the Dallas Mavericks announced they would begin accepting Dogecoin as payment for tickets and merchandise, it appears Mark Cuban has gotten his wish.
The Mavericks owner announced via Twitter on Saturday that his team has performed more than 20,000 Dogecoin transactions, which he claims makes it the largest Dogecoin merchant in the world:
The @dallasmavs have done more than 20,000 #Dogecoin in transactions, making us the LARGEST #DOGECOIN MERCHANT IN THE WORLD ! We thank all of you and can only say that if we sell another 6,556,000,000 #DOGECOIN worth of Mavs merch, #dogecoin will DEFINITELY HIT $1 !!!🚀🚀🚀
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) March 6, 2021
Raise the banner.
Mavericks doing this 'because we can'
The Mavs' apparent success with Dogecoin is Cuban's latest step into the world of cryptocurrencies, having already started accepting Bitcoin and others back in 2018. Cuban has been combative against critics saying he's making a mistake, and it could be a while before we find out if he's right.
In the Mavericks' Dogecoin announcement, Cuban explained why his team has started doing this ("Because we can!") and urged fans to look into the cryptocurrency:
“The Mavericks have decided to accept Dogecoin as payment for Mavs tickets and merchandise for one very important, earth shattering reason, because we can! Because we can, we have chosen to do so. We have chosen to do so because sometimes in business you have to do things that are fun, engaging and hopefully generate a lot of PR. So we will take Dogecoin, today, tomorrow and possibly forever more. For those of you who would like to learn more about Dogecoin we strongly encourage you to talk to your teenagers who are on TikTok and ask them about it. They will be able to explain it all to you,” shared Dallas Mavericks owner, Mark Cuban.
For those who don't have teenagers on TikTok like Cuban suggested, here's our best effort.
What on Earth is Dogecoin?
There are probably better places to learn than a sports website, but here are the bare basics. Dogecoin is a cryptocurrency, which is a digital asset where ownership can be clearly recorded and supply is controlled in some way. No one entity is in charge of it, and it can be freely exchanged as a currency. Its value is decided by how much people value it.
In the case of Dogecoin, we're dealing with a cryptocurrency that started as a joke. A couple of engineers decided to create a cryptocurrency inspired by the "Doge" meme. The value of Dogecoin has been quite small for most of its history, previously peaking at around 1.7 cents a pop back in 2018 before crashing back down. Many investors buy them up in the hope they explode in value down the line, not unlike Beanie Babies, baseball cards or the NBA's own Top Shot. That day may be arriving now.
The value of many cryptocurrencies have been surging in the last few months, and Dogecoin has enjoyed the backing of a Twitter account from a trader on the infamous subreddit WallStreetBets and various celebrities (such as the billionaire NBA team owner mentioned above). Its current value sits at around five cents, which doesn't sound like much, but it's pretty high if you bought thousands of them at a fraction of a cent each a few years ago.
It should be noted Cuban is doing all this in his own self-interest. If he has his team start accruing a cryptocurrency, then goes on an all-out blitz to promote that decision, the cryptocurrency will likely rise in value thanks to that endorsement. It's innovative, but also risky. Of course, Cuban didn't become a billionaire by avoiding risks.
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