Everyone’s favourite crypto doggy is back, and could be on route to become an official currency in California. Should he emerge victorious in the U.S. Senate elections, Democratic Party member Timothy Ursich Jr. has pledged to draft a bill proposing Dogecoin as a legal tender.
Bringing Attention to Cryptocurrencies
While the world is moving closer and closer toward crypto adoption, so far the only digital asset being used as an official method of payment is Bitcoin (BTC). Even then, to date only El Salvador and the Central African Republic have adopted it.
The promise to put forward the motion of granting Dogecoin the status of legal tender, as made by Ursich Jr. in a recent tweet, seems to be a part of his election campaign, attempting to gain support for the vote which will take place on June 7th.
I call on @BillyM2k and @elonmusk for support of my US Senate campaign here in California.As mentioned weeks ago, if voted in/elected on June 7th, I will draft a bill proposing #Dogecoin as Legal Tender. I will push for mass adoption via the universal utility of #cryptocurrency
— Dr. Timothy Ursich Jr Candidate for US Senate 2022 (@Ursich4SenateCA) June 2, 2022
Outside of the move to build hype around his election push, pinging Elon Musk in the process, the political power play is also drawing further attention to cryptocurrencies. On his website, Ursich Jr states that “the adoption of cryptocurrency by our government immediately gives American citizens the opportunity to narrow the wealth gaps that exist, something argued for decades.” The senate candidate further stresses the importance of a regulatory framework in preventing bad-players from exploiting the crypto market.
Dogecoin’s Popularity
The leading memecoin, created by Jackson Palmer and Billy Markus, was one of the stars of 2021, as it soared to an all-time high price of over $0.70 in just a few months. The hype around the coin was partially fueled by Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk, who was affectionately named “the Dogefather” by the crypto community.
Last April, the entrepreneur vowed that SpaceX would “put a literal Dogecoin on the literal Moon.” Soon after the announcement, the memecoin’s USD valuation surged by 35%. Musk criticized Bitcoin and Ethereum for conducting slow and expensive transactions, and instead chose to endorse DOGE, claiming that it could minimize fees and provide faster settlement speeds. The entrepreneur also revealed that he had invested his own wealth into the coin.
At the beginning of 2022, Musk and Dogecoin made the news again, this time challenging McDonald’s to integrate DOGE as a form of payment. To incentivize the fast food giant’s adoption of the memcoin, Musk promised to eat a Happy Meal live on TV. Just a few days ago, DOGE’s price spiked 15%, after the Tesla CEO tweeted that SpaceX would soon be embracing the memecoin as a means of payment for merchandise.