Dogecoin As Payment Option Gains Momentum As 'Meme Currency' Shoots For The Moon

Dogecoin DOGE, often branded as a meme coin, saw a meteoric rise last week, hitting a high of 43.77 cents Friday before giving back some of the gains over the weekend.

Its rising popularity, thanks in part to the unstinted support of Tesla Inc.'s TSLA Elon Musk, is pushing the cryptocurrency into the mainstream.

Doge's Heady Gains: At its all-high Friday, the cryptocurrency had tacked on a gain of over 9,200% for the year-to-date period. Doge ended 2020 at 0.47 cents and briefly broke above 1 cent in early 2021.

After trading below the 1-cent level for much of January, Doge went on to hit a high of 8.49 cents on Feb. 9, as Musk sent it to the moon with his supportive tweets. Subsequently, Doge began a consolidation move and was largely confined in the range of 5-7 cents.

The listing of Coinbase Global, Inc. COIN last week kickstarted the new momentum and Doge quickly latched onto the optimism and saw a meteoric rise.

Here are some of the companies that have begun accepting Doge as a payment option.

easyDN: On Friday, easyDN, a Canadian web hosting provider, said it has begun accepting Doge and has already been accepting Bitcoin BTC/USD, Ethereum ETH/USD and Litecoin LTC/USD. In a blog post, the company took a dig at Musk, claiming it beat him to the punch. 

BOTS: OTC-listed BOTS, Inc. BTZI, a robotics company, said Friday it had become one of the first publicly-traded companies to accept Dogecoin as a form of payment for all of its products and services.

"Like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin, Dogecoin is also a popular cryptocurrency people use to buy and trade," the company said in a release.

Related Link: How to Buy Dogecoin (DOGE)

Dallas Mavericks: The Dallas Mavericks, a professional basketball team owned by "Shark Tank" co-host Mark Cuban, announced early this month that its fans can use Dogecoin to buy tickets and merchandise online.

"With fans in mind, the Mavs use BitPay to process all cryptocurrency purchases including tickets and merchandise with all top cryptocurrencies including BTC, BCH, ETH, USDC, GUSD, PAX and BUSD and now DOGE," a statement from the Mavericks read.

Cuban's reasoning for the adoption reflected the increasing popularity of Doge.

"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," Cuban said.

Kessler: Luxury hotel chain Kessler Group said on March 9 it will partner with BitPay to accept Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin and several other cryptocurrencies including four stable coins as payment to cater to the growing demand, effectively immediately.

airBaltic: Latvian airline airBaltic, which has been using Bitcoin as a payment option since 2014, said late March it began accepting other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin Cash, Ether and Dogecoin among others for bookings made on its website.

Amazon To Follow Suit? Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN, which has thus far shied away from using cryptocurrencies as a payment option, is under pressure to rethink its stance. Petitions posted on Change.org seek to get Amazon to accept Dogecoin for payments.

One petition so far has more than 114,000 signatures.

Related Link: How WallStreetBets, Dogecoin And Elon Musk Brought Out The Investor In An 11th Grader From A Remote City In India