DOGE Adoption on the Rise. Dallas Mavericks to Accept Dogecoin for Tickets, Merchandise

Dogecoin (DOGE), the Shiba Inu-represented cryptocurrency, is heading to the National Basketball Association.

• The Dallas Mavericks will soon be accepting the meme-based cryptocurrency as part of an agreement with crypto payment services provider BitPay, which is rolling out the coin as a payment option for merchants and consumers.
• It's the second big piece of news for the canine cryptocurrency this week. On Tuesday, ATM provider CoinFlip announced DOGE can now be purchased with cash across its 1,800-machine network.
• And while one would be forgiven for thinking the deal might not be as big a deal for the Mavericks, which began accepting bitcoin as a method of payment for almost two years, you wouldn't know it from the tone of the announcement:
• “The Mavericks have decided to accept dogecoin as payment for Mavs tickets and merchandise for one very important, earth-shattering reason: Because we can!" Mark Cuban, the team's billionaire owner, barked in the press release.
• It's not Cuban's first DOGE show, either. Early last month, Cuban tweeted he'd bought some DOGE in order for his son to teach him about the crypto markets.
• "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," Cuban said.
• That BitPay, the largest provider of crypto payment services in the world, is now offering it as a form of payment continues the remarkable resurgence of DOGE, which had basically played dead for all of 2020, trading at times for less than half a cent.
• In just a few short months, the meme-based crypto has gone from mutt to best in show.
• The interest in the cryptocurrency began when people ranging from Tesla CEO Elon Musk to Snoop Dogg adopted DOGE as a pet cause.
• Soon the coin captured the imagination of the crypto-buying public and occasionally has surpassed vastly larger bitcoin as the most mentioned cryptocurrency on Twitter.
• Year to date, DOGE has risen about 1,000%, trading about five cents at press time and now has a market cap of more than $6 billion. Earlier in the year, it was above $10 billion.
• Overall, it's been quite the tale and judging by the day's BitPay news, DOGE still may have a ways to run.

Read more: A Better Breed of DOGE? Developers Release New Core With Faster Sync Speed

UPDATE (March 4, 22:40 UTC): Adds context of ATM agreement.