Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency that started as a joke, is now a top-five digital currency with a market value of about $49 billion, according to CoinGecko.
Created as a parody in 2013, dogecoin is based on the “Doge” meme, which portrays a Shiba Inu dog. On Friday, dogecoin reached an all-time 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 has rallied 400% this week.
So what does billionaire crypto bull Mark Cuban think of the sudden surge?
“I have no idea what it means,” Cuban tells CNBC Make It. “But I do know that supply and demand is undefeated. So it will find its level.”
In March, Cuban announced that his NBA team, the Dallas Mavericks, will accept dogecoin for purchases, and over the past month, Mavericks’ sales in dogecoin have increased 550%, Cuban tweeted on Tuesday.
“We have now sold more than 122k Doge in merchandise!” Cuban said on Twitter. “We will never sell 1 single Doge ever.”
To understand dogecoin’s recent rally, some speculate that it’s a result of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase going public on Wednesday, which also drove an increase in the prices of bitcoin and ether. Others attribute its spike in price to recent tweets by Tesla CEO Elon Musk that nod 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 finds investing in dogecoin to be “fun.”
“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 anything else.”
Cuban is an outspoken supporter of cryptocurrencies. He has a portfolio of bitcoin, Ethereum and other digital coins himself, and has invested in many companies in the space.
This story has been updated to add that dogecoin has rallied 400% this week.
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