What Ripple CEO Has To Say About Dogecoin

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse says that he is “not convinced” that the cryptocurrency Dogecoin benefits the market.

Dogecoin is a cryptocurrency inspired by the 2013 viral internet meme of a Shiba Inu dog. Though it originally started as a joke, it is now the 10th largest digital coin, and reached a market capitalization of $88 million in May.

“Dogecoin has some inflationary dynamics itself that would make me reluctant to hold it,” Garlinghouse said. “It was built as a joke, then it got some momentum from some high-profile people like Elon Musk.”

Dogecoin’s supply is infinite, which seemingly doesn’t give the cryptocurrency much value. However, Mark Cuban believes that’s the coin’s strongest point, as it makes it a great means of payment as people will be incentivized to spend it, rather than simply stashing them away.

“It’s a medium that can be used for the acquisition of goods and services,” the billionaire entrepreneur said. “The community for doge is the strongest when it comes to using it as a medium of exchange.”

In spite of his criticism of Bitcoin in the past, Garlinghouse admited the influence it has on financial infrastructure.

“Bitcoin has a lot of momentum,” he added. “I think if you step back and take a long view ... these are real technologies that are fundamentally reworking how our financial infrastructure works and I’m very bullish and very optimistic about what the longer-term horizon looks like.”