In addition to its increasing attention from investors, Dogecoin (DOGE) appears to have found a niche following among sports fans.

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Dallas Mavericks basketball team owner Mark Cuban said that the people had “taken control of DOGE,” as evidenced by the tickets and merchandise sales he had seen since first offering the token as a method of payment in March. Prior to adopting the asset, the Mavericks had already been accepting Bitcoin (BTC) payments through BitPay since 2019.

However, Cuban indicated that no other cryptocurrency had quite produced the numbers the team has seen from Dogecoin:

“We sell more Mavs merchandise for DOGE on a typical day [...] than we did in a year with BTC or ETH,”

Major League Baseball fans have begun to show similar enthusiasm in recent days. Oakland Athletics president Dave Kaval announced this week that the franchise had sold two plaza infield tickets the same day the team said it would be offering them for 100 DOGE — roughly $46 at the time. In contrast, it took more than two weeks for a sports fan to cough up the BTC needed to pay for one of the stadium’s six-person suites. However, at 1 BTC, the price of the tickets was significantly higher.

At time of publication, the price of DOGE is more than $0.63, having surged significantly over the last week, month and quarter to reach new all-time highs. Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital recently published a report referring to DOGE as “the most honest sh*tcoin,” while many expect Tesla CEO Elon Musk to pump the price of the token during his Saturday Night Live appearance this weekend.

All the attention from social media and news outlets regarding the coin over the last several months may have demanded a lot from its co-creator Jackson Palmer. The San Francisco Bay Area resident’s tweets are now protected, and his website’s homepage includes a message stating he does “not have any thoughts to share” on crypto or Dogecoin.

Speaking on Dogecoin's value as an asset, Mark Cuban said “DOGE is the ultimate in strength in numbers,” elaborating:

“It's the ultimate decentralized evolution. Rather than an edict coming from an ivory tower that defines value, the law of supply and demand is defined by an algorithm.”

Back in February, the billionaire referred to DOGE as the "lowest cost economics teaching tool available that entertains at the same time,” later jesting that he expects the coin's price to reach $1 should the Dallas Mavericks sell an additional 6,556,000,000 DOGE worth of merchandise. At its current price point, the asset needs only to rise another 59% to reach that milestone.