There’s been a resurgence in attention towards Dogecoin (DOGE), after a series of recent whale moves (extremely large transactions). Analysts have seen big things for DOGE, including a forecast of a return to its previous $0.73 level by the end of 2024, which would represent a 500% increase from the price as of March 22, 2022. While whale moves tend to trend the coin higher, it’s the addition of accessibility that ultimately brings on higher demand, including the Robinhood (NASDAQ:HOOD) Markets, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOOD) announcement that its new Cash Card can invest your spare change into Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and DOGE. Rumors are also circulating that eBay Inc. (NASDAQ:NASDAQ:EBAY) could soon accept the same cryptocurrencies for payments. Other ways to obtain the memecoin include from global crypto exchange Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:COIN), sometimes as Burger King rewards from Restaurant Brands International (NYSE:NYSE:QSR) and for livestreaming on the popular social media platform Hello Pal International Inc. (CSE:HP (NYSE:HPQ)) (OTCQB:HLLPF).
In May of 2021, the popular livestreaming social media platform Hello Pal International Inc. (CSE:HP) (OTCQB:HLLPF) made history when it became the market’s first listed company focused on DOGE mining. Reaction to the announcement was swift, causing a surge in traffic so heavy it temporarily caused a website outage.
As per the shift, users could now take part in the mining process of both Litecoin (LTC) or Dogecoin (DOGE) by either owning or partly-owning crypto mining rigs.
So far the decision’s paid off, as Hello Pal’s addition of Litecoin/Dogecoin mining rigs delivered strong additional revenues in the most recent quarter. Since then, it’s gone on add to its fleet of Antminer L7 mining rigs to its current total of 400.
“Our livestreaming operations continue to deliver strong operating results as we continue to diversify outside of China,” said KL Wong, Founder and Chairman of Hello Pal. “With the acquisition of the highly sought after L7 miners, we are excited to become a North American miner.”
After having moved its mining operations to North America, and while the majority of its livestreaming user base are in Asia, Hello Pal signed a letter of intent with one of Europe’s largest non-custodial crypto wallet providers by user numbers, UniCrypt—a provider of wallet and crypto-based remittance services to more than 14 million clients world-wide.
“We are tremendously excited at the prospects which this collaboration will bring to our efforts in increasing cryptocurrency usage among not only Hello Pal users, but to the world at large,” said KL Wong. “With UniCrypt’s ability to easily onboard new users and generate segregated wallets, we aim to provide many users across the world with their first cryptocurrency experience and introduce them to an international social community with a borderless payments system.”
As Hello Pal‘s livestreaming operations continue to expand to new markets, the ability to carry out cross-border payments becomes more and more relevant, lending credence to UniCrypt’s services leading to a distinct advantage.
Late in the fall of 2021, Restaurant Brands International (NYSE:QSR) and its flagship chain Burger King appeased the crypto world by offering free crypto, and putting BTC, ETH, and DOGE on their menu. Done as a marketing promotion together with Robinhood Markets , Inc. (NASDAQ:HOOD).
The promotion gave away crypto to members of its Royal Perks loyalty program, whenever they spent $5 on the Burger King app. Most people, not surprisingly, received DOGE, as the prize pool will consisted of 2 million DOGE, 200 ETH, and 20 BTC. By those odds, that put the chances of receiving a Bitcoin at about one in 100,000.
“As a brand, we are always looking for ways to reward our most loyal guests with exclusive offers that are exciting, unique, and culturally relevant,” Burger King said in a statement. “Cryptocurrency (crypto) has been a hot topic of conversation recently, but we know it can be difficult to understand. That’s why we wanted to bring crypto to our guests in a way that was accessible and digestible (literally and figuratively)—through our food.”
Now Robinhood appears to be solidly backing Dogecoin, having reportedly the stable amount worth $4.9 billion (as of March 18, 2022) in DOGE—a number that allegedly accounts for 31.7% of circulating Dogecoins.
Through microtransactions that round up each transaction, users of Robinhood’s new card simply called “the Robinhood cash card” are being incentivized to invest their change into either stocks or cryptocurrencies—which would include DOGE.
As per the company’s blog post announcement: “When customers invest in themselves, Robinhood Money will give them a bonus of 10-100% (capped at $10) on their weekly round-ups. As they spend, customers can choose to round-up their change to the nearest dollar and invest it in their choice of assets. The weekly bonus is our way to show our support for our customers’ investing goals.”
Meanwhile, Coinbase Global , Inc. (NASDAQ:COIN) has been testing out a new subscription product that allows users to exchange digital assets without trading fees. According to CFO Alesia Haas, transaction revenues from trading fees historically made up the bulk of Coinbase‘s revenue—generating $2.2 billion in transaction fees revenue in Q4 2021 alone.
“We’re taking steps to diversify this revenue and also grow our non-transaction revenue streams,” said Haas, during Coinbase‘s Q4 earnings call. “We generated more than $500 million of subscription and services revenues this year, including $214 million in the fourth quarter. This was a 10x increase from 2020.”
Lastly, in the online marketplace that sells perhaps the widest range of goods on the internet (including NFTs), eBay Inc. (NASDAQ:EBAY) might soon take crypto payments according to a report from The Street, which included an interview with CEO Jamie Iannone.
As per the interview, eBay just completed its transition to manage payments, and they’re now managing $85 billion in volume on their platform directly.
“This gives us the ability to open up new forms of payment,” said Iannone. “And so we continue to evaluate other forms of payments that we should take on the platform. We don’t currently accept cryptocurrency on the platform.”