Shiba Inu Kabosu remembered by the community

On May 24, the meme money symbol Kabosu died after a long illness.

Kabosu, who symbolized the Dogecoin (DOGE) token, was 18 years old. In early May his condition worsened sharply. The dog could no longer walk independently and was able to move with the help of his animal wheelchair.

this is real.
More
this is real.
what does it mean
This.
this is real.
https://t.co/aJyC8wECQP

— かぼすママ (@kabosumama) May 24, 2024

Kabosu’s owner, Atsuko Sato, wrote on her blog Kabochan that Kabosu felt normal by eating rice and drinking water before he died. The dog’s farewell will take place on May 26 in Narita, Japan.

“We hope to throw a fun farewell party at Sakura Furusato Hiroba when the weather cools down.”

Atsuko Sato, owner of Kabosu

In December 2022, Kabosu was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Atsuko Sato said the pet was in a “very dangerous situation.” On Christmas Eve, the dog stopped eating and drinking, but after a while his appetite returned.

Crypto community reaction

The crypto community and fans of the most famous Shiba Inu expressed their condolences.

The official Dogecoin

Today, Kabosu, a common friend and inspiration to our community, passed away peacefully into his own arms. The impact this dog has made worldwide is immeasurable.

He was a being who only knew happiness and unlimited love.

Please protect his soul and his family…

— Dogecoin (@dogecoin) May 24, 2024

In memory of the dog, Dogecoin fans decided to release a long-planned limited NFT collection. All 5,000 NFTs will be free and will only require users to pay gas fees.

The Shiba Inu (SHIB) cryptocurrency community also thanked Kabosu for his contributions to the development of meme coins.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin also joined in the pain, retweeting a post from Kabosu’s owner.

From a shelter to crypto industry leaders

Kabosu came to the volunteers after his previous owner and breeder went bankrupt and could no longer care for the dogs he handed over to the shelter. At the aid station, Kabosu was taken away by Atsuko Sato.

Photos of the pet first appeared on the owner’s blog in 2010 and immediately went viral. Kabosu became famous after the misspelled word “Doge” in English went viral.

Many texts attributed and various images were added to the image of Kabosu’s confused face lying with his paws folded, resulting in the image becoming a meme. Kabosu’s popularity has soared, and the dog’s portrait has appeared on a variety of things, from toys to Bitcoin (BTC).

In 2013, the internet meme ranked #12 on MTV’s “50 Things We’re Thankful for Pop Culture’s Year” list. That same year, developer Jackson Palmer used Doge as the logo for the Dogecoin cryptocurrency.

Vitalik Buterin visited a dog owner in Japan in 2018.

Later, in 2020, Kabosu’s image appeared in another popular meme: about two Shiba Inu dogs, one representing strength and endurance, the other representing weakness and helplessness.

Elon Musk also bought this meme coin. Tesla stated that Starlink and Starship will accept Dogecoin for payment, and integration with the X payment service is also planned.

Dogecoin’s impact on the meme coin market

By the time Dogecoin developers launched the project, Kabosu had already become the personification of meme coins. This might be why developers used the dog meme in their coins.

The main purpose of Dogecoin was to show users’ satirical attitude towards how cryptocurrencies suddenly became popular. In fact, cryptocurrencies do not stand out among others and do not deserve special attention.

The power of social influence has become a major growth and traction force for DOGE. The first phase of the coin’s golden age came in 2021, when the value of Dogecoin increased by more than 800% in 24 hours, reaching $0.07, thanks to the support of Reddit users. In February, the Doge fan community welcomed Elon Musk.

The success of Dogecoin has led to the emergence of similar projects. Dogecoin’s closest rival, Shiba Inu, was initially launched to surpass Dogecoin’s popularity by using the same image of the Japanese Shiba Inu dog breed.

Since then, the image of the Shiba Inu dog has gone viral on the meme coin market. Projects are launching all kinds of DOGE analogues stylizing the image of a famous dog – BabyDoge, Dogwifhat (WIF) and others.

But no one has yet surpassed Dogecoin’s success; The cryptocurrency has consistently been among the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap for several years. He doesn’t even think of leaving his place to anyone.