The Shiba Inu who inspired the crypto Dogecoin and countless memes has died

The dog that inspired the famous “Doge” meme and a cryptocurrency has died, according to its owner. She was 18 years old.

The Shiba Inu, named Kabosu, “fell into a deep sleep” Friday morning, Atsuko Sato, a teacher in Japan, said in a blog post.

Kabosu became an internet celebrity after social media users circulated a now-famous photo of the rescued dog that Sato posted on her blog in 2010.

Meme creators applied the comic sans rainbow font to Kabosu’s sideways gaze and crossed paw pose, telling the puppy’s inner dialogue with short, broken phrases like “much wow” or “so happy “.

Thus, the meme called “doge” was born. The intentional misspelling is often attributed to a 2005 episode of Homestar Runneran animated comedy web series.

The meme found new fame with the launch of the Dogecoin cryptocurrency in 2013.

The coin was created as a joke to mock cryptocurrencies, but its value jumped years later after Elon Musk, then the world’s richest person and Dogecoin champion, tweeted about the coin. cash.

Musk has joined those mourning the death of Dogecoin’s muse, Kabosu. The owner of the social media platform formerly known as Twitter posted a photo on X of Harambe, another late mammal meme, hugging the dog in heaven.

Dogecoin soared 5% after Musk’s post.

The dog had recently suffered health problems. In 2022, Sato said Kabosu was diagnosed with acute cholangiohepatitis, an inflammatory liver disease, and chronic lymphoma leukemia, a blood cancer.