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Dogecoin Use Cases Strengthen Even as Investors Get Whiplash

By:
Gerelyn Terzo
Updated: Jun 17, 2021, 14:02 UTC

On-demand pet-walking app Wag! now accepts Dogecoin as a form of payment via BitPay.

Dogecoin

Dogecoin may have had a bumpy week, but the use cases for the sixth-biggest cryptocurrency are on the rise. The greater the use cases, the more in-demand the coin could potentially become. Dogecoin has come a long way from its beginning as a joke coin.

Most recently, on-demand dog-walking app Wag! has announced it will begin accepting cryptocurrency payments via BitPay, including Dogecoin and Ethereum. BitPay helps merchants to accept digital currencies as a form of payment. It also has a browser extension that lets users purchase gift cards using Dogecoin from major brands such as Amazon.

On the Wag! app, pet owners will now be able to use cryptocurrency to buy what are known as Wag! credits via BitPay to pay for services on the app, including:

  • dog walks
  • overnight stays
  • training
  • veterinarian pointers

The Wag! team sought to capture the attention of billionaires Mark Cuban and Elon Musk about the Dogecoin development, both of whom are fans of the meme coin. The Dogecoin community cheered the move, with some of them saying on social media that they would check out the app.

Charitable Giving

Wag! will also direct a percentage of its crypto-related revenue toward environmentally friendly charities. The move stands to make Dogecoin bull Elon Musk happy, as a lesser carbon footprint for DOGE mining vs. bitcoin’s is one of the features that he likes most about the cryptocurrency. Sustainability, or what he views as a lack thereof, is also one of Musk’s biggest gripes about bitcoin.

While the Wag! development wasn’t enough to lift the DOGE price out of the doldrums, it is another rung on the ladder to wide-scale adoption of cryptocurrencies. Dogecoin is down 1% on the day and 8% over the past seven-day period amid a pullback in the broader crypto market, giving short-term investors whiplash.

Wild Ride

Dogecoin investors have been taken on a wild ride of late as the cryptocurrency has traded as high as USD 0.44 in early June to its current level of USD 0.30. They’ve watched as the coin has shaved nearly one-third off its market cap.

Investors who are in it for the long haul are not worried, especially those who got in early when the price was trading for less than a dime. As it typical during a market downturn, however, they are looking for someone or something to blame.

A day after the Federal Reserve admitted that inflation is in the air,  the Dogecoin community is picking apart the cryptocurrency’s supply model in which 10,000 new coins are minted per minute. As CoinShares Chief Strategy Officer Meltem Demirors told CNBC last month, Dogecoin is “inflationary” amid a ” potentially infinite supply.” Nonetheless, in some circles, Dogecoin seems to have more fans than the U.S. dollar, including Musk, which bodes well for the long-term proposition of the asset.

About the Author

Gerelyn is a cryptocurrency and blockchain journalist who has been engaged in the space since mid-2017 when bitcoin was embarking on its first major bull run

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