Coinbase is Giving Away $1.2 Million in Dogecoin as it Starts Letting Users Trade the Meme Cryptocurrency Dogecoin, which started as a joke, was the sixth most valuable cryptocurrency as of Thursday.
By Tyler Sonnemaker Edited by Emily Rella
This story originally appeared on Business Insider
Coinbase said on Thursday that it plans to give away $1.2 million in dogecoin to encourage users to take advantage of its newest cryptocurrency trading option.
Related: Dogecoin Added to Coinbase, Price Surges
Users must buy or sell $100 in DOGE through Coinbase by June 10 to be eligible for the sweepstakes, the company said. Coinbase said it plans to give out one prize worth $300,000, 10 prizes worth $30,000, and 6,000 prizes worth $100 by around June 17.
The sweepstakes follows the company's announcement on Tuesday that it would start letting Coinbase Pro users trade dogecoin on its platform.
Related: Elon Musk Tweets, Dogecoin Surges
The announcement, along with a tweet from Elon Musk referencing the meme currency, sent dogecoin's value climbing by as much as 41%.
At $52.3 billion, dogecoin had the sixth-largest market cap among all cryptocurrencies as of Thursday evening, according to CoinMarketCap, after seeing a massive rally in May that sent its market cap soaring to more than $85 billion.
Dogecoin was started as a joke by two engineers in 2013, but has since gained immense popularity thanks to Redditors as well as endorsements from Musk and other high-profile celebrities, leading other crypto trading platforms like Robinhood, eToro, and Gemini to start accepting trades in recent weeks.
