Dogecoin Has a Top Dog Worth $2.1 Billion

The dogecoin market has a pack leader. From a report: Records show that a person, or entity, owns about 28% of all of the cryptocurrency in circulation -- a stake worth about $2.1 billion at current prices [Editor's note: the link may be paywalled; alternative source]. The holder's identity isn't known, which is common in the opaque world of digital currencies. It is hard to tell what to make of this giant position in what has long been a small and niche corner of the cryptocurrency world. Dogecoin was created in 2013 as a satirical homage to bitcoin. Its developers were riffing off the meme of a Shiba Inu dog with bad spelling habits. It wasn't designed to be used as a form of payment, or as anything except a joke. At the start of 2021, a dogecoin was worth about half a cent, even as bitcoin prices had surged to nearly $30,000.

Things have changed this year. Dogecoin surged in popularity after business and pop-culture icons including Tesla's Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk, rapper Soulja Boy and 'Malcolm in the Middle' star Frankie Muniz began promoting it online. It isn't clear what caught their attention. Dogecoin's price has climbed over 900% this year to 5 cents apiece, according to CoinDesk. That makes the market worth about $6.9 billion, and puts its largest owner's holdings at roughly $2.1 billion. Like bitcoin, dogecoin is created by a process known as mining: people solve complex mathematical puzzles using computers to unlock new coins. It is nearly impossible to identify the holder due to the anonymity offered by cryptocurrencies.

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