The dog who inspired Dogecoin died at 18

TOKYO, Japan — The dog who rose to internet fame and became the face of the cryptocurrency dogecoin has died.

The Shiba Inu named Kabosu died in Japan at the age of 18, several media outlets reported. The dog’s owner, Atsuko Sato, said in a blog post that Kabosu died in her sleep. The dogecoin account on X also said she had died, calling her an inspiration.

Sato, a 62-year-old kindergarten teacher in Japan, adopted the dog from an animal shelter in 2008, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Sato regularly posted photos of Kabosu and her cats online. It was a photo of Kabosu, head tilted in a seemingly questioning manner, that caught the attention of early cryptocurrency adapters and it became a meme almost overnight.

A developer named Billy Markus actually exploited the image in an attempt to mock many of the cryptocurrencies being traded at the time. Markus co-created dogecoin using the Kabosu meme. The image of the dog was transposed onto a gold coin as the dogecoin emblem in 2013, according to the Journal.

Kabuso’s image was soon shared by traders, celebrities and even members of Congress.

Dogecoin, which is pronounced dohj-coin, has flirted with slight levels of popularity over the years. April 20, 2021 was “Doge Day”. Dogecoin’s supporters were trying to help it shed its image as a wacky cryptocurrency and have it seen as a way to make quick and easy transactions, although it is not widely accepted as a means of payment in no circle.

A year later, billionaire Elon Musk suggested that Twitter consider providing users with a way to pay for their subscriptions with dogecoin.