Coinbase is giving away $1.2 million in dogecoin as it starts letting users trade the meme cryptocurrency

• Crypto trading platform Coinbase said Thursday it's giving away $1.2 million in dogecoin.
• Coinbase announced Tuesday it would let Pro users trade Dogecoin, sending its value surging.
• Dogecoin, which started as a joke, was the sixth most valuable cryptocurrency as of Thursday.

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.

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.

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.