Dogecoin has become the center of attention of famous individuals once again. Mark Cuban said that his NBA team had become the largest DOGE merchant, Elon Musk made an electronic-god reference, while John McAfee used its growing popularity to defend his alleged pump and dump schemes.

McAfee Touted DOGE Before Musk

The love story between the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and the popular meme coin is well-known within the cryptocurrency space. Musk has outlined his support for the asset on multiple occasions.

While some believed that the positive engagements with DOGE came from his trolling nature on social media platforms, Musk has repeatedly found different ways to promote the token. The latest one came on Saturday, as he said that “Doge spelled backwards is Egod.”

His support brought more famous individuals to the scene as well – names such as Snoop Dogg and Gene Simmons. Despite the long-term relationship between Musk and Doge, though, John McAfee recently highlighted that he touted the asset long before Tesla’s CEO.

Much of the new allegations from the Feds are about my “coin of the day”. For a few days in 2017 I chose coins I believed had value.

One of them was Doge – now being touted years later by Elon Musk. The coin has increased well over 1000% since I chose it.

Not a pump and dump.

— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) March 7, 2021

McAfee was indicted days ago from the US DOJ for multiple criminal offenses, including his alleged involvement in pump and dump schemes with his “Coin of the Day” campaign. Several years ago, the former antivirus tycoon promoted small-cap altcoins that he supposedly believed were undervalued, but US authorities claimed that he made more than $13 million from illicit schemes.

McAfee argued that the allegations are “overblown” and that he indeed considered those coins to have immense potential. One of them was Dogecoin, which, in his words, “has increased well over 1,000% since I chose it.” Ultimately, he concluded that this was “not a pump and dump.”

Mavs Are the Biggest DOGE Merchant

Another Doge-related engagement from high-net-worth individuals came from the owner of the Dallas Mavericks – Mark Cuban. The billionaire and his NBA team recently announced that they had started accepting Dogecoin payments for game tickets and merchandise on the online store.

A few days later, Cuban updated the community on the performance of this new initiative. He said that the Mavs had received more than 20,000 DOGE in transactions, making them “the largest Dogecoin merchant in the world.”

Furthermore, the start of the reality TV series Shark Tank predicted that DOGE will “definitely” reach $1. With a current price of $0.056, the asset would need a 1,700% increase to reach that milestone.

The @dallasmavs have done more than 20,000 #Dogecoin in transactions, making us the LARGEST #DOGECOIN MERCHANT IN THE WORLD ! We thank all of you and can only say that if we sell another 6,556,000,000 #DOGECOIN worth of Mavs merch, #dogecoin will DEFINITELY HIT $1 !!!🚀🚀🚀

— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) March 6, 2021

With the impending legal battle between the SEC and Ripple, the CEO of the payment processor said that XRP will endure even if the company doesn’t.

Simultaneously, Jesse Powell, the CEO of the veteran US exchange, Kraken, believes that offering XRP trading carries “huge asymmetrical risk.”

XRP Will Endure, Says Ripple CEO

Ever since the US Securities and Exchange Commission brought charges against Ripple for conducting an unregistered security offering, the company’s executives have tried to defend their position multiple times.

During the latest such attempt, the CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, called the lawsuit “misguided” and noted that XRP had traded in the US for eight years before the allegations emerged.

Furthermore, he laid his case on why Ripple’s native token is not a security and promised that the asset will survive even if Ripple ceases to exist.

“If you own a security, it gives you ownership of a company. If Ripple goes away, XRP will continue trading.”

Garlinghouse explained that numerous other countries, such as Singapore, Switzerland, and Japan, all have “clarity and certainty” that XRP is not a security. In contrast, the US is “the only country on the planet that has suggested that XRP is a security.”

Consequently, the executive doubled-down on a previous narrative stating that the lawsuit against Ripple is “bad” for the entire cryptocurrency industry, not just the payment processor. This is pushing entrepreneurs to seek other options as they plan to leave the US.

It’s worth noting that Ripple is one of those companies that contemplated moving outside the US even before the SEC’s charges became official.

Trading XRP Carries Asymmetrical Risk

While Garlinghouse believes that XRP will continue trading even if Ripple is no more, Kraken’s CEO recently highlighted the potential “asymmetrical” risks for exchanges during these uncertain times for the token.

He assumed that the Commission has acted in “good faith” when bringing the charges and believes that judges ultimately “tend to side with agencies.”

As such, Powell asserted that if the SEC wins, then the watchdog would “say that exchanges should have known.”

Huge asymmetrical risk for exchanges. Have to assume SEC’s case is in good faith. Judges tend to side with agencies. If XRP found to be a security, SEC would say that exchanges should have known. Safe harbor pending outcome would have been responsible if only purpose is to “test” https://t.co/KnA71Bebg0

— Jesse Powell (@jespow) March 6, 2021

Although Kraken took its time before making it official, the veteran US exchange joined the list of trading venues that removed XRP in January this year.