Since the adoption of Dogecoin as a means of payment for goods began in March, the Dallas Mavericks organization has made significant sales of the meme-inspired cryptocurrency, according to team owner Mark Cuban. To continue that push, Cuban announced on Thursday that the organization would offer “special prices” to those paying with Dogecoin during the Mavericks’ summer sale.
Although Dogecoin was created as a hoax and its creators never intended it to be taken seriously, Cuban says it has a unique use case versus other cryptocurrencies.
“It’s a medium that can be used to buy goods and services,” Cuban told CNBC Make It. “The Doge’s community is the strongest when it comes to using him as a medium of exchange.”
In April, Cubans tweeted that Dogecoin was the “one coin” people actually use for transactions, despite previously saying that ether is also used as a digital currency.
“Ethereum is a digital version of a currency,” Cuban Ellen DeGeneres said in April. “And then you have Dogecoin, which is just fun. But the strange thing about it [is that] it went from a cryptocurrency joke to what will become a digital currency. “
Cubans sees Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market value, as a “digital version of gold” rather than a currency, he told DeGeneres. That’s because bitcoiners usually hold their stake long-term and view it as something that will appreciate.
However, that doesn’t mean that Bitcoin and Ether aren’t also used as currencies. In June, El Salvador became the first country to introduce Bitcoin as legal tender, which can now be used to pay for goods and services. The Bitcoin community also foresees a global adoption of the cryptocurrency, but critics say it is far too risky and volatile to be used as a currency.
Ether is also widely used to pay for digital assets such as NFTs or non-fungible tokens, which are a multi-billion dollar industry today.
However, due to their speculative nature, financial experts are generally very skeptical about cryptocurrencies and warn that people should only invest what they can afford to lose. Some experts say that one should be extra careful when investing in Dogecoin in particular, as it lacks the scarcity and technological advancement that Bitcoin, for example, has.
In the past, Cuban has also admitted that Dogecoin isn’t the best investment, despite its optimistic outlook. Nonetheless, Kubaner and his 11-year-old son Jake owns Dogecoin as well as Bitcoin and Altcoins such as Ether.
Disclosure: CNBC owns the exclusive off-network cable rights to Shark Tank.
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