This article was originally published on Fool.com. All figures quoted in US dollars unless otherwise stated.

Derided by many pundits as a joke digital coin with no real path to gaining stable value, yet defended stoutly by its legion of retail investor fans, Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE) has followed a roller-coaster pattern of massive price surges and dizzying plunges over the past few months. The coin with its Shiba Inu mascot image, however, has slowly gained some traction as a medium of exchange. Recently, Jenny Ta, founder of crypto-commerce site CoinLinked, asserted that its market cap could reach $1 trillion, indicating Dogecoin might eventually trade for $7 to $8.

There are indeed some positive signs for the formerly long-dormant dog-themed cryptocurrency, but the level of risk for its buyers remains high.

How Dogecoin got here

After its launch in late 2013, Dogecoin's value remained at fractions of a cent for the next seven years, while Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) grew to dominate the cryptocurrency market. In 2021, however, Dogecoin has gained explosively in price with rises that included a more than 500% one-day jump on Jan. 29.

Its rise was triggered by a group of crypto enthusiasts on Reddit looking to repeat in the digital currency arena what the WallStreetBets subreddit did to the share price of GameStop. Those stock traders ignited a short squeeze in which some small investors profited by pumping up the value of GameStop, which forced institutional short-sellers to push it even higher as they covered and closed their money-losing short positions.

According to many involved, a sizable number of Redditors viewed the short sellers' behavior as artificially depressing the share prices of GameStop and other heavily-shorted companies far below their objectively reasonable valuations. Their desire to punish what they perceived as an example of "vulture capitalism" gave them additional motivation to buy and hold the stock.

Dogecoin's surge was aided by tweets from maverick electric vehicle CEO and space pioneer Elon Musk, and it was dubbed "the people's coin" or "the people's crypto" by its enthusiasts. This sparked the rapid growth of the r/dogecoin subreddit, which reached 1.9 million members by May 20. Large holders also played significant roles in the coin's rise, as well as its subsequent drops as those "whales" pumped and dumped the coin.

Where does Doge go from here?

The broader cryptocurrency market remains extremely volatile with intensely held views on both sides of the argument around the real value of such assets. Powerful, unpredictable price movements mean long-term investments in a well-chosen portfolio of traditional stocks are likely to deliver better returns for many investors, based on the standard analytical view.

However, in the process of being bought and traded, Dogecoin has acquired value and characteristics absent from its original "meme coin" incarnation. Here are some potential signs of this shift from low-value meme to potential medium of exchange:

1. It is retaining value despite the crypto roller-coaster

Cryptocurrencies in general have taken a pummeling over the past several weeks, and Dogecoin has not been immune from that trend. Its value often moved independently from Bitcoin or even the crypto market as a whole during its ascent, and its price has hovered in the $0.30 to $0.40 range for nearly a week. This stability has come despite the average size of trades and the overall trading volume dropping sharply. The average transaction value, which shot upward starting in mid-April, peaked at $1.16 million on May 23, then fell back to less than $240,000 by May 26, according to data supplied by BitInfoCharts.

That Dogecoin continues to trade far above its early 2021 price range of $0.02 or less suggests that market forces have established a "floor" at current levels, at least for the time being. The coin's worth never fell far below $0.30 during the past month, despite China's push to ban cryptocurrency mining. That decision came as a blow to Bitcoin miners in particular, since 65% of them are believed to operate in China, but the decision exerted downward pressure on the whole crypto market.

2. It has some everyday advantages over Bitcoin

Among the younger demographic that makes up the bulk of cryptocurrency enthusiasts, preserving the environment is commonly seen as a high priority.

In light of that, the vastly lower amount of electricity required to mine and use Dogecoin compared to Bitcoin could boost its attractiveness as a crypto alternative. Dogecoin uses just 0.12 kilowatt-hours of electricity per transaction, compared to Bitcoin's 707 kilowatt-hours.

Though the concept is currently little more than an upbeat prospectus, the nonprofit VeriBlock Foundation says it is working on a "proof-of-proof" blockchain technology that would reuse Bitcoin's proof-of-work security for other cryptocurrencies, including Dogecoin. If successfully deployed, the technology could greatly lower Bitcoin's relative environmental costs, while providing improved security for other cryptocurrencies, potentially helping Bitcoin and Dogecoin develop a type of symbiosis rather than a direct rivalry, benefiting holders of both.

While some view with concern the fact that there is no limit on the total number of Dogecoin that could eventually be mined -- in contrast to Bitcoin, which does have a hard cap -- a maximum of 5.26 billion additional Dogecoin tokens can be mined per year. With over 129 billion coins already in circulation, this capped mining rate ensures Dogecoin's inflation rate will decline steadily over time, while still providing an incentive to continue mining it.

The total number of Dogecoin in circulation will rise by 4.1% in 2021, but only 3.9% in 2022. Dogecoin inflation will be 3.5% in 2025, 3.0% by 2030, 2.3% by 2040, and 1.9% by 2048. Given the attrition from lost Dogecoin wallets -- a factor in the supply of all cryptocurrencies -- the coin could theoretically become deflationary at some point if those losses exceed the ever-shrinking inflation provided via mining.

In short, while Dogecoin is theoretically "infinitely inflationary," its predictably declining, mathematically inevitable inflation rate potentially gives it more a stable value than national currencies.

3. It's gradually winning wider acceptance

Like any currency, Dogecoin gains value as it becomes more widely accepted as a medium of exchange. While dozens of small businesses now accept Dogecoin as a form of payment, their economic impact is effectively zero. However, some larger entities are also accepting Doge, including the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, which will let customers use it to buy both tickets and merchandise through BitPay.

As team owner Mark Cuban stated: "The Mavericks have decided to accept Dogecoin as payment for Mavs tickets and merchandise for one very important, earth shattering reason, because we can!" The team's press release offered some more practical reasons for the decision, noting that the "ability to accept crypto expands a business' sales opportunity into international markets where accepting credit cards is not practical while reducing high fees and increasing payment transparency and efficiency." The Houston Rockets are also accepting Dogecoin, among other cryptocurrencies.

It is now also possible to purchase the hardest of hard assets, precious metals, using Dogecoin. The largest U.S. silver and gold e-commerce site, JM Bullion, added it to the list of seven cryptocurrencies it accepts as payment. Under JM Bullion's policy, buyers using cryptocurrencies receive a 3% discount on their transactions compared to credit card purchases, close to the 4% discount it offers to purchasers who pay via personal check.

Rumors also continue to swirl that so-called "DogeFather" Elon Musk might start accepting the cryptocurrency for purchases of Tesla vehicles. The electric car manufacturer has stopped accepting Bitcoin payments due to the coin's adverse environmental impact, but Musk continues to offer verbal support for Dogecoin. However, with Musk now signaling that he'd be willing to reverse his Bitcoin rejection if miners commit to "going green," Tesla's future stance on Dogecoin remains cloudy.

Choosing a 'diamond hands' or 'paper hands' strategy

Though it was born as a "joke coin," Dogecoin now enjoys a number of potentially bullish factors, making it less simple to dismiss as an asset. The risk to investors remains high, as it does with all "altcoins," but Dogecoin's low energy costs, a potential for a shared security protocol with Bitcoin, the willingness of a few larger companies to accept it for purchases (and the possibility that more will join them), and a measure of price stability are positive signs overall. Though not directly measurable, Dogecoin also may benefit from the considerable good will of its two million strong retail investor "fan base."

Fools investing in cryptocurrencies should not put any money into Dogecoin that they are not prepared to lose. Those who already have positions in it may want to get out if they aren't comfortable with volatile, high-risk investments -- be "paper hands" in the parlance of Reddit retail investors. But if you are prepared to hold cryptocurrencies through dips and fluctuations -- adopting the unshakable "diamond hands" strategy -- then over the medium to longer term, "joke" currency Dogecoin has at least some potential to leave you laughing all the way to the bank.

This article was originally published on Fool.com. All figures quoted in US dollars unless otherwise stated.

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Rhian Hunt owns shares of Dogecoin. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of and has recommended Bitcoin and Tesla. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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The swift expansion of Walt Disney's (NYSE: DIS) Disney+ streaming service across multiple countries is largely thanks to Amazon's (NASDAQ: AMZN) Amazon Web Services infrastructure, executives from the entertainment conglomerate said today. As reported by Streaming Media and other outlets, Disney says it is increasing its reliance on Amazon Web Services (AWS) even more as it continues to push for wider distribution.

One of Disney's executive vice presidents, Joe Inzerillo, said in a statement, "AWS has been our preferred cloud provider for years, and its proven global infrastructure and expansive suite of services has contributed meaningfully to the incredible success of Disney+."

The company says it has been using AWS for its streaming service from the start, well before the late 2019 launch of Disney+, because of its "reliability, scalability, and breadth of functionality."

Now Disney is adding even more AWS features to its service as it continues to push expansion beyond the 59 countries where Disney+ is already available. These include analytics to ensure efficient delivery of quality streams, database systems enabling immediate switching between shows on different devices, and machine learning.

Disney's focus on improving Disney+ perhaps reflects its second-tier profitability for the company. While Disney+ is the company's most widespread streaming service by far, Hulu currently brings in approximately twice the monthly revenue. The House of Mouse also recently inked a deal with Sony Group (NYSE: SONY) to add Spider-Man and a range of other Sony films to its Disney+ lineup, though these will also appear on Hulu. 

For its part, a lockdown-driven surge in home entertainment consumption has led Amazon to invest significantly in its Prime Video service in addition to further developing its streaming infrastructure overall. 

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Rhian Hunt has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. The Motley Fool Australia's parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of and recommends Amazon and Walt Disney and recommends the following options: long January 2022 $1920 calls on Amazon and short January 2022 $1940 calls on Amazon. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Amazon and Walt Disney. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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Despite its stock value having climbed more than 65% over the past year, online retail and tech titan Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) still has a gigantic growth spurt coming, one major analyst claims. Brent Thil, an analyst with Jefferies Financial Group, said in a research note today Amazon is likely to see a 70% rise over the next three years, and he sees a "pathway to $5,700" for the company, The Fly reports.

The official Jefferies price target for Amazon remains $4,000, a much more modest 17% rise from current share value. Thil's speculative valuation, $1,700 higher than this point, doesn't depend on any one facet of Amazon's operations or situation, but is based on a "sum of its parts" view. He did, however, single out Amazon Web Services, or AWS, saying it is Amazon's "most valuable business and is positioned for continued strength."

Benzinga reports CNBC's Jim Cramer provided some additional commentary on Thil's $5,700 prediction. Cramer, pointing to Jefferies' $1.25 trillion valuation of AWS, described the cloud platform as "an undervalued asset buried within this company." He remarked Prime Video and Amazon's advertising are two other sources of strength, and summed up Amazon by saying "I think it is going to prove to be an excellent long-term value."

Notably, a previous bullish Amazon forecast from Jefferies came true. In April 2019, Brent Thil predicted the company's shares would reach $3,000 in two years, a roughly 65% upside compared to the $1,828 stock price at the time. Amazon's current value of $3,400 vindicates Thil's optimism and the company's possible telehealth expansion shows it's still working to keep up the momentum. 

This article was originally published on Fool.com. All figures quoted in US dollars unless otherwise stated.

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Rhian Hunt has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. The Motley Fool Australia's parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of and recommends Amazon and recommends the following options: long January 2022 $1920 calls on Amazon and short January 2022 $1940 calls on Amazon. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Amazon. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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Last year, with much of the United States still in the grip of pandemic-related delivery delays and restocking issues as well as general COVID-19 economic fallout, Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) postponed its Prime Day sales event from its usual July schedule to October. Prime Day, which actually lasts for several days, has become a significant "shopping holiday" for consumers who watch the giant retailer's listings for bargains.

Compensating for last year's delayed Prime Day, Amazon is planning to move the event up a month to June, according to several people providing information to Recode and other news outlets. The start date of the sale, which could span two days like 2020's Prime Day, is still uncertain.

Prime Day, now in its seventh year, is likely to feature an even larger number of brands on sale than last year, Men's Health reports. Some of the most popular discounted categories, based on previous years' sales, are likely to be electronics and other tech items, household goods, and appliances.

Amazon is looking forward to continued success in the future, despite the drop-off in coronavirus related panic buying as COVID-19 ebbs. CEO Jeff Bezos expects the giant company to gain even more ground thanks to the Biden administration's upcoming infrastructure plan. The plan includes road improvements that could speed delivery and broadband internet infrastructure expansion that could extend the reach of Amazon's streaming video services and other online offerings into the more remote areas of the country.

This article was originally published on Fool.com. All figures quoted in US dollars unless otherwise stated.

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Rhian Hunt has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. The Motley Fool Australia's parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of and recommends Amazon and recommends the following options: long January 2022 $1920 calls on Amazon and short January 2022 $1940 calls on Amazon. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Amazon. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

This article was originally published on Fool.com. All figures quoted in US dollars unless otherwise stated.

Shortly after inking a deal as the exclusive broadcaster of Thursday Night Football games through its streaming service, Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) has secured another alliance with the NFL to carry an expanded range of league-related merchandise.

Sportico reports most officially licensed brands on the NFL website are now available on Amazon, too.

Among the many brands now appearing on Amazon for the first time, Fanatics is one potentially getting a significant boost from the partnership.

The licensed sports merchandise company is now valued at $12.8 billion after a fresh round of funding from Silver Lake Partners announced yesterday, which added $320 million to the privately held company's war chest.

Investors have been waiting impatiently for a Fanatics IPO for some time, but a spokesman remarked yesterday that while "an IPO is clearly an available option to us, there is no update on any timeline." Expansion to Amazon's colossal marketplace could make the company even more attractive as an initial public offering.

The official provider of on-field NFL apparel, Nike (NYSE: NKE), is notably left out in the cold by the new pact, Sportal reports. Nike axed its first partnership with Amazon back in November 2019, possibly partly over Amazon's alleged inability to prevent the sales of fake Nike items by third-party sellers.

Neither Amazon nor the NFL has yet commented publicly on the new partnership, so its duration and exact terms remain unknown for now.

Amazon is continuing its aggressive expansion policy in everything from sports streaming to backing the IPO of food delivery company Deliveroo, though it is also drawing some criticism for reportedly imposing intrusive monitoring of delivery drivers that even includes a collection of biometrics such as yawning.

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John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Rhian Hunt has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia's parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of and recommends Amazon and recommends the following options: long January 2022 $1920 calls on Amazon and short January 2022 $1940 calls on Amazon. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Amazon. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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Multinational investment bank Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) is within a week of reviving its cryptocurrency trading, Reuters reports, with the trading desk to reopen for Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) futures and nondeliverable forwards (another type of future-oriented derivative) sometime in mid-March. The bank is also showing interest in the official digital currencies under consideration by several countries, along with blockchain tech in general.

The move comes at a time when explosive growth in the value of Bitcoin and several other cryptocurrencies has led several big players in the financial sector to soften their previously hard-line attitude about digital currencies. Mastercard (NYSE: MA) said in a blog post on Feb. 11 "this year Mastercard will start supporting select cryptocurrencies directly on our network," mentioning Bitcoin by name, while asserting it will "be very thoughtful about which assets we support based on our principles for digital currencies." According to Bloomberg, Visa (NYSE: V) has also said it will support cryptocurrencies if they become a "recognized means of exchange."

The popularity and value of Bitcoin has mushroomed since the start of the pandemic. The cryptocurrency gained approximately 300% during 2020, and another 70% in January and February of 2021. The volatility of the digital currency means many skeptics remain, but Goldman Sachs' upcoming restart of its cryptocurrency trading desk suggests it's on the side of the bulls, at least for the time being. 

According to the digital-currency news site CoinDesk, Goldman Sachs aborted its previous foray into cryptocurrency trading back in 2018 over concerns Bitcoin and similar currencies occupied a regulatory gray area. But at the time, the bank said it might reopen the desk at a later time, along with offering nondeliverable forwards on the cryptocurrency, foreshadowing today's news three years ago.

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The Motley Fool Australia's parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. recommends Bitcoin. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

Rhian Hunt has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Mastercard and Visa. The Motley Fool recommends Bitcoin. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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As the headline-making short squeeze of video game and electronics retailer GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME) continues, one government official is calling for a month-long halt to trading of the company's shares. Barron's reports that Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Galvin wants a 30-day trading suspension, remarking, "small and unsophisticated investors are probably going to get hurt by this."

Galvin says the New York Stock Exchange ought to "consider simply suspending it for a month and stop trading it," and that there is "no rational basis for this run up." He offers the opinion that GameStop's current trading "needs some regulatory intervention" and an "example" needs to be made of GameStop to prevent similar occurrences.

Conversely, Barron's also says many small, individual investors have profited immensely from the trading, greatly changing their financial fortunes. CNBC reports more than 3 million people now use the WallStreetBets Reddit chat room, which discusses potential short squeezes, such as fashion retailer Express Inc. (NYSE: EXPR). Some say the squeeze enables regular people to profit from a system they claim the short sellers exploit by building up excessive short positions that artificially drive down share value.

Galvin claims his 30-day trading halt would protect small investors out of their depth and hints that larger players could be covertly, even illegally, manipulating the situation for their advantage. Short positions were 140% to 144% of float before the current bull run, hinting that some of them might be "naked shorts" backed illegally by nonexistent shares. Galvin remarks the shorts appear "systemic" and some could be "nefarious," and since "the little guys you describe are probably the ones most likely to get hurt" rather than the shorting hedge funds, his 30-day suspension proposal would protect small traders, not harm them.

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Scorching growth in advertising revenue appears poised to propel retail titan Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) over $100 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time in its history, according to reporting by PYMNTS.com and The Financial Times. Considering the year as a whole, $21 billion of the company's revenue is expected to come from ads, skyrocketing 47% year over year, FactSet data indicates.

The Financial Times also says Amazon's swift advertising growth is outpacing all of its other major segments, including its Amazon Prime subscription service and its retail sales. While these areas may still be making more money, their growth is much slower. Amazon has posted powerful gains this year as lockdowns related to COVID-19 devastated America's small businesses, which were typically not deemed "essential," while Amazon was allowed to operate unhindered, gaining immensely from the switch to e-commerce.

Amazon's advertising growth has been enough for it to start taking market share from Alphabet's Google, formerly the undisputed monarch of online product searches and advertising. According to The Financial Times, eMarketer analyst Andrew Lipsman asserts there is a lack of general "recognition for just how big of an advertising business Amazon is on the way to creating."

According to Amazon's head of investor relations David Fildes during the company's third-quarter conference call, Amazon is looking to streamline registration, setup, and use of its advertising in the future. He also noted Amazon is in "a unique position to be able to provide measurement services that help all these brands sort of understand the impact" of their advertising with direct data, rather than advertisers needing to tease information out of obliquely related web searches as with Google and other search engines.

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Rhian Hunt has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. The Motley Fool Australia's parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of and recommends Alphabet (A shares), Alphabet (C shares), and Amazon and recommends the following options: long January 2022 $1920 calls on Amazon and short January 2022 $1940 calls on Amazon. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Alphabet (A shares), Alphabet (C shares), and Amazon. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.