Dogecoin cofounder Billy Markus jokes on X that he's 'a Shiba Inu'
In brief
- Billy Markus replied "I am a Shiba Inu" to a question about his identity, per U.Today.
- An X user had written "I thought you were a dog" after Markus joined a non-crypto thread.
- Markus added in a second reply that "Billy is a Shiba Inu with glasses."
- DOGE traded at $0.0659, down 0.93% in 24 hours at time of writing, per U.Today.
A question from outside crypto
Markus commented on one of the social media posts in a thread that seemed to fall outside crypto. That drew a reply from an X user who appeared surprised the Dogecoin cofounder was interested in the topic at all.
"I thought you were a dog," the user wrote.
Markus's answer was five words long. He didn't stop there, either: in another reply on X, he repeated the point and added a detail about his look, writing that "Billy is a Shiba Inu with glasses."
U.Today described the first exchange this way. Markus
responded to an unusual question about his identity, saying, "I am a Shiba Inu."
Why a Shiba Inu?
The joke only works because of where Dogecoin came from. Markus and Jackson Palmer launched the dog-themed cryptocurrency in December 2013 as a lighthearted alternative to Bitcoin, and its identity was built around one dog in particular.
That dog was Kabosu, a Japanese Shiba Inu that inspired the viral "doge" meme and became the face of Dogecoin. Kabosu died in 2024.
So when the cofounder calls himself a Shiba Inu (with glasses, no less), he's leaning on the same imagery that made the coin's mascot famous in the first place. It's a bit on X, not an announcement about Dogecoin itself, and it shouldn't be read as one.
DOGE price at the time
U.Today reported that, at the time of writing, Dogecoin was down 0.93% over 24 hours at $0.0659 and down 7% over the week. Those figures come from the outlet's own snapshot when it published, not from any statement by Markus. His replies on X were about the dog, and nothing else.
