American basketball team Dallas Mavericks will now accept payments for tickets and merchandise in Dogecoin via the leading cryptocurrency payment processor, BitPay.
Prior to the announcement, it already supported payments in cryptocurrencies, including BTC, BCH, ETH, USDC, GUSD, PAX, and BUSD. Its billionaire owner and Shark Tank star, Mark Cuban, cited the ‘very important’ reason behind the newest addition.
Meme-inspired Dogecoin is finally getting some utility to go with the massive hype of recent. The digital asset, which features the face of the Shiba Inu dog from the “Doge” meme on its logo, has been added to the list of payment options on Dallas Mavericks’ online shop.
As a result, the team’s fan base, Mavs Fans for Life (MFFLs), can now purchase game tickets and merch using dogecoin.
According to the Dallas Mavericks, the decision is purely consumer-centric and is targeted at leveraging cryptocurrencies to “expand business sales opportunity, reduce high fees and increase payment transparency and efficiency.” Mavs’ billionaire owner and bitcoin skeptic-turned proponent Mark Cuban revealed the ‘earth shattering’ reason for accepting dogecoin payments.
“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,”
While institutions are just getting caught up in the bitcoin frenzy, Dallas Mavericks is one of the early institutional adopters. The Dallas-based NBA hotshot started accepting bitcoin payments nearly two years ago and has continued to align itself with newer developments in the digital space.
Mark Cuban’s reason for accepting dogecoin payments is based on the digital assets’ central theme – fun. He told Forbes last month:
“Dogecoin is less than a dime. You can buy $1 worth or $10 worth and have fun watching it all day”
He further stated that the digital currency has no intrinsic value, adding that he bought some for his son for educational purposes.
His earlier comments have led to strong suggestions that he is solely interested in reaping off the PR surrounding dogecoin of late.
Mark Cuban was quick to rebuff anti-bitcoin remarks made by the gold proponent and Chairman of SchiffGold, Peter Schiff, this week. The agelong precious metal advocate took a jab at wall street bitcoiners, tweeting that he never knew smart investors could be “dumb enough to buy bitcoin.”
In response, Cuban correctly pointed out that while a technology-backed store of values like crypto are dynamic and can transition into advanced applications, gold is simply static.