By Sumejja Muratagić-Tadić
American billionaire and enthusiastic dogecoin (DOGE) promoter Mark Cuban has revealed in a tweet that he owns USD 494 worth of DOGE - while at the same time calling the DOGE community “the strongest when it comes to using it as a medium of exchange.” Meanwhile, DOGE has been rallying.
Cuban, the owner of professional US basketball club the Dallas Mavericks, praised the DOGE community, calling it “the strongest” and adding that the coin can be used “for the acquisition of goods and services,” according to CNBC.
To the CNBC tweet on this matter, Tesla chief Elon Musk replied that, “I‘ve been saying this for a while.” However, followers have accused both of “pulling the rug” under them, as many say they have lost their investments when DOGE crashed from its all-time high to its current price in spite of Musk’s praise.
Ive been saying this for a while
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 14, 2021Furthermore, Cuban announced last Friday that the club will have a summer merch sale with special prices for those who pay in DOGE.
In a subsequent Twitter conversation about the pros and cons of using Dogecoin, he stated that its imperfections and simplicity are [its] greatest strengths. You can only use it to do 2 things: Spend It or HODL It. Both are easy to understand. He also touted the advantages of DOGE as a fun community that is easy to get into.
Yet, when asked about his personal investment portfolio and whether he owns more DOGE or bitcoin (BTC), he replied, “The Mavs have what we sold in merch. I personally own USD 494 worth of DOGE.”
At the time of writing, this amount of USD Cuban mentioned would be equal to some 1,440 coins.
The Mavs have what we sold in merch. I personally own $494 worth of DOGE
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) August 15, 2021The response was overwhelmingly negative: many asked why he wouldnt “practice what [he preached]”, as many in the community have invested in the asset directly because of his endorsements.
This did not affect the price of DOGE negatively, as the coin was the second-best performer among the top 10 coins by market capitalization today (at 13:30 UTC), going up 13.5%. It is trading at around USD 0.34. Overall, its up 40% in a week, and 90% in a month.
The coin reached its all-time high in May 2021, at USD 0.73 according to data aggregator CoinGecko, largely thanks to Cubans fellow billionaire Elon Musk.
Cuban, on the other hand, has previously stated that 60% of his crypto portfolio is in BTC, 30% in ethereum (ETH), and the remaining 10% belongs to other, unspecified crypto assets. In other words, his latest DOGE holdings reveal might not be that surprising.