- The Dogecoin founder has faced online abuse and harassment even though he left the project six years ago and sold all his DOGE.
- This was after a Reddit-inspired price pump took DOGE to new heights before it eventually gave way and the price crashed overnight.
In what was a crazy month for investors, both in Wall Street and in cryptocurrencies, one of the highlights was the Reddit-inspired price pump of meme cryptocurrency Dogecoin. After a 1,000% overnight pump, the price crashed recently, leading to millions of dollars’ worth of losses for some. They have now directed their frustration to the founder of the project.
Dogecoin founder Billy Markus took to social media to speak out against the harassment he has received from investors lately. Also known as Shibetoshi Nakamoto, he reiterated that he hasn’t been involved in the project for seven years.
“I left the project over 7 years ago due to harassment from the community, and now I’m being harassed again. Please consider this,” he tweeted.
guys, i sold all my doge in 2015 after getting laid off and freaking out about money. in total i made about enough to buy a used honda civic.
i left the project over 7 years ago due to harassment from the community, and now i’m being harassed again. please consider this.
— Shibetoshi Nakamoto (@BillyM2k) January 31, 2021
He further revealed that he only made enough “to buy a used Honda Civic.” This is despite the project he created blowing up in recent years and creating several millionaires.
Markus alluded to this in his tweet, stating:
I’m financially fine – I just want to offer some perspective of what it feels like to have a mob demand you to do something for them on a project that you have no current involvement in, that you’ve seen others make many millions off of.
In 2015, when Markus was still at Dogecoin, it was still a relatively little known cryptocurrency. It ended the year trading at just $0.000149. It has since then gained 44,866% to record a new all-time high price recently at $0.0677.
The Dogecoin community responds
The Dogecoin community reacted kindly to their founder as he later revealed on social media.
I just wanted to say that I was really heartened by the responses to my last tweet and very appreciative of the tips and supportive words. It reminded me that the Dogecoin community can be a force for good.
He further pledged to become active again on Dogecoin community forums such as on Reddit to share his views.
Dogecoin started off in 2013 as a joke between two software engineers – Markus, who worked at IBM and Jackson Palmer, who worked at Adobe. Surprisingly, it took off quite fast, with over a million visitors to its website in its first month. Its doge meme, which features an image of a Shiba Inu dog surrounded by thought bubbles, gained wild popularity in the cryptocurrency circles.
Palmer described the project back in 2013, “It’s not taking itself as seriously, it’s not being used by people worrying about whether they’ll become rich. It’s something to share for thanks or kudos.”
Over the years, it has become one of the most pumped cryptocurrency. Its most recent pump came following the now infamous Gamestop stock price pump on Reddit. Redditors pumped the price of the video game company to devastate Wall Street giants, which all started on the r/WallStreetBets Subreddit.
Dogecoin was next, with members of the r/SatoshiStreetBets leading the pump. The price spiked from just below $0.01 to $0.0677. On some exchanges like Binance, it went all the way to $0.075. It then dropped drastically, prompting the harassment of its founder.
Dogecoin has since regained its momentum, gaining 34.9% in the past 24 hours to trade at $0.038. It now has a market capitalization of $4.89 billion, making it the 14th-largest cryptocurrency.
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