It's simply not a joke anymore. Once scoffed as the "joke currency" and "meme crypto," Dogecoin has achieved a major milestone aside from Elon Musk's favorable tweets, leading to more mainstream cryptocurrency acceptance.
Coinbase's professional trading platform has listed the meme-inspired Dogecoin, a move that will certainly increase trading activity for the emerging digital asset.
The addition of Dogecoin to Coinbase Pro was actually teased last month, with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong singling out Dogecoin as "getting a lot of attention lately," according to a Forbes report. At an investor call last May 15, Armstrong stressed his intention to speed up the addition of assets in the future, recognizing that a lot of new assets are emerging.
Dogecoin Price Surges Due to Coinbase Announcement
As of time of writing, Dogecoin rose by 9.37 percent in the last 24 hours to $0.36 as a result of the Coindesk announcement, per Coindesk. It is the only gainer among the cryptocurrencies amid the recent crash affecting the digital assets.
In a blog post, Coinbase Pro said it will immediately start accepting inbound transfers and emphasized that if liquidity conditions are met, users could place the DOGE listing into their professional trading accounts. Trading is expected to commence at 9am US Pacific time on Thursday, CNBC reported. It is also likely that Coinbase Pro will add DOGE to its retail platform a few weeks after its inclusion on its professional counterpart, which is solely for professional traders.
Currently, however, Dogecoin is not available on Coinbase's website or mobile app, but the exchange added that it would issue a separate announcement on when Dogecoin will appear on their digital properties. Thus, for the time being, retail investors can't trade the shiba-inu-faced asset.
Coinbase earns revenue from the trading and storage of cryptocurrencies, notably the two largest ones-Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Dogecoin Listing, Latest in a Series of Milestones Boosting Asset Price
While the listing would lead to increased trading activity on Dogecoin and generate excitement in crypto circles, this latest milestone is only one of the growth-inducing developments Dogecoin encountered in recent months. Dogecoin actually started in 2013 as a fun, joke-filled alternative to the prevalent assets such as Bitcoin. However, it recently gained popularity, with the likes of Tesla and Space X CEO Elon Musk and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban backing it.
Musk even proclaimed himself as the "dogefather," launching several tweets and pronouncements in support of Dogecoin that made it skyrocket. Musk's announcement that he was collaborating with doge developers to "improve transaction efficinency" came at a great time as it seemingly concurred with Armstrong's statement , both of which led to a surge of the Dogecoin price by 20 percent.
Currently, Dogecoin's market capitalization stands at the seventh-best $43.68 billion among cryptocurrencies.
For what it's worth, while Dogeocin increased by nine percent, Bitcoin is down 1.15 percent at $36,390 while Ethereum dropped 1.3 percent to $2,602, as per Coindesk.
