Benzinga | Jun 22, 2021 08:54AM EDT

Dogecoin As An Asset 'Accurately Reflects' Current Economic Climate, Says FTX CEO

The CEO of derivatives exchange FTX Sam Bankman-Fried called Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE), the "asset of the year for 2020 and 2021," during an appearance on The Jax Jones and Martin Warner Show podcast.

What Happened: "[Dogecoin] is the asset the accurately reflects our current economic climate," said the billionaire.

See Also: How To Buy Dogecoin (DOGE)

Bankman-Fried said that Dogecoin is "the asset that we have all chosen, that we all deserve--for better or for worse."

He clarified that he was not endorsing the meme-themed cryptocurrency often tweeted about by Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk or endorsing against it.

On Musk and his relationship with Dogecoin, Bankman-Fried said, "Elon is actually a powerful piece of this. He is the most influential man in the world when it comes to financial assets right now. His tweets move markets. He chose Dogecoin and no one was surprised," -- adding, "And, we chose Elon."

Why It Matters: Dogecoin is down about 25% over 24 hours to press time at $0.17. The cryptocurrency is still up 2902% this year.

Bitcoin traded 8.5% lower at $29,565.74 and Ethereum (ETH) traded 9.6% lower at $1,762.39 at press time.

Bankman-Fried traced the rise of DOGE while speaking on the podcast and said "hundreds of millions" of dollars flowed into Dogecoin after Robinhood banned buying shares of GameStop Corp (NYSE:GME) in January following the short squeeze conducted by retail investors.

Last month, Dogecoin co-creator Billy Markus said that 99.9% of the cryptocurrency market is driven by "Greater Fool Theory" in response to a tweet that decried investors opting for memes instead of technologically sound projects.

Read Next: EXCLUSIVE: Dogecoin Mania Didn't Prove 'The End Of Crypto,' So They Launched Commercial Toilet Paper-Backer Tetherino, 'The Most Ridiculous Cryptocurrency' Ever

Photo by Play Your Place on Flickr