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Dogecoin may be the king of cryptocurrency jokes, but it’s making it onto another major exchange, sending its price soaring.
Coinbase Global
(ticker: COIN), the largest publicly traded crypto exchange in the U.S., said on Tuesday that customers with “pro” accounts could transfer their Dogecoin (DOGE) to the exchange and start trading it on Thursday, assuming adequate liquidity. Once there is enough supply,
Coinbase Global
said, traders will be able to swap Doge for dollars, euro, British pounds, Tether (USDT), and of course, Bitcoin (BTC), launching in phased order books.
The news sent Doge soaring 31% to about 42 cents on Wednesday, according to CoinDesk. It might be also lifting Bitcoin, which was up 5% to around $38,000.
Dogecoin launched in 2013 as a joke poking fun at cryptocurrency mania. It is based on a meme with a logo of a Shiba Inu dog. Unlike Bitcoin and other cryptos designed to be scarce, 10,000 new Dogecoins are minted every minute, according to Coinbase. (There is also now a Shiba Inu coin (SHIB), for good measure).
The cryptocurrency bounced around in obscurity at less than a penny before taking off in 2021 as so-called meme stocks and other cryptos took off.
Tesla
(TSLA) CEO
Elon Musk
also had a hand in it, periodically tweeting and making references to Doge it in public. Musk was at it again on Tuesday, alluding to the crypto in a
Twitter
post and indicating he might adopt a Shiba Inu.
About 129.7 billion Dogecoins have been mined overall, giving the crypto a market value of $54.5 billion. More than $1.3 billion in Doge is transacted daily, according to CoinDesk.
Coinbase is actually late to Doge trading. The cryptocurrency is already available on Binance, Robinhood, Webull, Gemini, other crypto exchanges. And Coinbase could use the volume; Bitcoin, its primary crypto, is in a slump, down more than 40% from highs around $65,000.
Bitcoin volatility is a major driver of revenue for Coinbase, according to Mizuho Securities’ Dan Dolev, but its volatility could be waning. About 50% of Bitcoin investors plan to hold on to their tokens, rather than trade, according to a Mizuho survey of Bitcoin traders on Coinbase. Investors also see limited gains in Bitcoin this year, expecting the price to be $42,000 in December, up from $38,000 in recent trading.
Dolev maintains a Neutral rating on Coinbase with a $225 price target.
Indeed, for all the hype about Doge, it isn’t doing much to lift Coinbase’s stock. The shares were up 0.7% in trading Tuesday morning to around $241.
If Doge doesn’t take off on Coinbase, plenty of other cryptos are waiting in the wings. The exchange recently added more than a dozen coins to its platform, including Internet Computer (ICP), Cartesi (CTSI), iExec (RLC), Tether (USDT, and SushiSwap (SUSHI).
What exactly are these cryptos? If you have to ask, it might be best to stay away.
Write to editors@barrons.com
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