Tennis Superstar Says Dogecoin Stoked Her Interest In Crypto Ahead Of NFT Foray

Tennis superstar Naomi Osaka said her newfound interest in cryptocurrencies was sparked by meme cryptocurrency Dogecoin DOGE/USD ahead of her foray into non fungible tokens (NFT).

What Happened: In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Osaka said that the continuous stream of conversations around Dogecoin, particularly on her Twitter feed, captured her attention.

It was only later that Osaka had conversations with her agent about investing in cryptocurrency.

See Also: How To Buy Dogecoin (DOGE)

Why It Matters: It was reported last week that Osaka, the defending U.S. Open champion, was the third featured athlete as part of the new NFT marketplace from DraftKings Inc. DKNG.

Dogecoin was created mainly as a joke in 2013, but has shot to prominence this year, in major part due to endorsement from Tesla Inc. TSLA CEO Elon Musk.

Dallas Mavericks was one of the first major sports franchises to allow purchases with Dogecoin. The team's owner Mark Cuban is one of the biggest supporters of Dogecoin.

The Shiba Inu-themed cryptocurrency’s year-to-date gains are an impressive 4,758.5%, but it is down almost 62.5% from the all-time high of $0.736 reached in May.

Price Action: Dogecoin is up almost 0.5% during the last 24 hours, trading at $0.2860 at press time.

Read Next: Classic Meme Behind Dogecoin To Be Available For 'Fractional Ownership' As NFT: What You Need To Know

Photo: By Rob Prange on Flickr