A few days ago, the co-founder of the Ethereum project became one of the latest billionaires in the world as the value of the ETH coins he held since its creation surged to a new record high. However, the recent explosive growth of ETH or Bitcoin cannot be compared to a peculiar cryptocurrency – Dogecoin.
In fact, this cryptocurrency, symbolized by the Shiba Inu dog, has seen an astonishing increase of up to 1400% in the past year – from just $0.045 to $0.7 per coin. This surely has made many people wealthy who have been holding this coin.
It is easy to assume that the founders of this project would also become billionaires due to the incredible increase of this coin, but it turns out this is not true for one of them – programmer Billy Markus.
Two months ago, in an effort to explain to everyone the “true value” of DOGE, this 38-year-old software engineer posted an open letter on the r/dogecoin subreddit sharing his perspective on the insane surge occurring. In this letter, Markus stated that he and co-founder Jackson Palmer created DOGE as a joke in 2013, and then it rose in value unexpectedly.
Markus himself, one of its creators, admitted that he decided to leave the project in 2015 due to the increasing pressure and ridicule from the online community. The entire amount of Dogecoin he held was sold for an amount just enough to buy a used Honda Civic.
“I am no longer a part of the Dogecoin project. I left in 2015 when the community began to change rapidly from a group of people I felt comfortable with.” Markus stated in the open letter.
“I currently hold no Dogecoin except for a few that I was recently gifted. I gave away or sold all the cryptocurrency I had since 2015 after being laid off and worrying about my savings running low at that time, just enough to buy a used Honda Civic.”
“I also don’t care much anymore, but it’s strange that something I created in a few hours has become a part of internet culture.” Markus said. “It’s amusing to see Elon Musk talking about it. It feels ridiculous, but behind it is a massive explosion.”
Currently, Markus is working for an education company in the San Francisco Bay Area. Although Dogecoin was created as a joke, its total market capitalization has at times reached $120 billion, more than double that of Honda (which has a market cap of $54 billion). If Markus had the patience to hold onto the Dogecoin he had, he would certainly have more than just a used Honda Civic now.
Source: LuxuryLaunches