Kabosu, the face of cryptocurrency Dogecoin, dies at 18, owner says

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Kabosu, the Japanese dog who became a global meme and the face of the alternative cryptocurrency Dogecoin, has died at the age of 18, his owner announced in a blog post on Friday.

Owner Atsuko Sato wrote that the Japanese Shiba Inu died while sleeping.

Kabosu became known as the face of Dogecoin, an alternative cryptocurrency that started as a satirical critique of the crypto craze in 2013.

However, the value of the token increased after Tesla boss Elon Musk, an advocate of cryptocurrencies, started tweeting about it in 2020. Since then, the billionaire has promoted the coin many times.

Dogecoin added $4 billion to its market value last year when the billionaire who bought the social media site Twitter in 2022 briefly replaced Twitter’s blue bird logo with the Kabosu image. Musk later adopted the name Twitter X.

According to data site Coingecko.com, Dogecoin is currently the ninth largest cryptocurrency with a market cap of approximately $23.6 billion.

“The impact this dog has made around the world is immeasurable,” Dogecoin said on social media site X on Friday.

(Reporting by Michelle Price; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)