Dogecoin (DOGE) is a meme coin pioneer. So, who owns the most dogecoins?
Here we take a look at the meme token’s circulating supply and dogecoin’s biggest holders.
What is dogecoin?
Dogecoin (DOGE) was created in 2013 by software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer, neither of whom are still affiliated with the project. The coin was inspired by the popular 2010 meme of a Shiba Inu dog called Doge, and was originally started as a joke. It was the first memecoin, and has inspired the creation of hundreds of others.
Dogecoin is an open-source, decentralised, peer-to-peer cryptocurrency, which “sets itself apart from other digital currencies with an amazing, vibrant community made up of friendly folks”.
According to its website: “Dogecoin is many things to many different people. At its heart, Dogecoin is the accidental crypto movement that makes people smile!
“It is also an open-source peer-to-peer cryptocurrency that utilises blockchain technology, a highly secure decentralised system of storing information as a public ledger that is maintained by a network of computers called nodes.”
The currency’s unofficial tagline is ‘Do Only Good Everyday’. Its community cares about supporting each other, being kind, teaching people about cryptocurrency, fundraising, having fun, making memes and being absurd.
The coin’s protocol was based on the now-defunct Luckycoin, a spinoff of Litecoin (LTC) – an early altcoin. According to Palmer, this protocol was used as means to turn the potential miners away from the project with the aim of making it fail. However, that did not go as planned and Luckycoin was removed from DOGE’s protocol since it was causing a number of problems.
In 2014, the Dogecoin Foundation was established by the project’s creators. It aims to provide support, advocacy, trademark protection and governance for the DOGE cryptocurrency project.
Although started as a joke, the coin soon found utility as its low value made it popular for small online transactions, such as tipping strangers anonymously on the internet.
Recently, Markus had even asked Twitter to add dogecoin to the Twitter tip jar, as “it just makes too much sense – the OG tipping cryptocurrency on the internet belongs there”.
As the token surged in popularity, it was spotted by Tesla (TSLA) founder Elon Musk, who tapped into the social media hype around DOGE, calling it “the people’s crypto” on Twitter.
Dogecoin supply
According to data provided by CoinMarketCap, DOGE does not have a maximum supply. This makes the digital asset an “inflationary coin”, while cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin are deflationary because they have a limit on how many tokens can be mined.
Every four years the number of bitcoin tokens released into circulation is halved.
“As with all commodities, cutting the supply in half will create a supply shock and a price spike — and that’s essentially what the halving cycle does,” Morgan Stanley’s Investing in Cryptocurrency report noted.
Up until 2014, dogecoin was also halved. The final dogecoin halving event took place in April 2014, when the payout was reduced from 250,000 to 125,000 coins a block. Later on, however, the cryptocurrency’s protocol was changed to provide an unlimited supply so the halving events were no longer necessary.
Dogecoin itself noted that the fact that it does not have a maximum supply does not make its total supply unlimited.
“Dogecoin’s supply is not unlimited, because it has an absolute limit of issuance per block, per day, per year – just like other coins do,” the project’s team said on dogecoin’s website.
“The only difference is that Dogecoin’s issuance does not have an end date. Therefore, Dogecoin is only “infinite” over ‘infinite time’. Over finite time, its issuance is, in fact, finite.”
As of 29 July, the total supply of dogecoins mined amounted to more than 132 billion. All tokens mined were in circulation. The cryptocurrency had a market capitalisation surpassing $8bn and was ranked the 10th biggest cryptocurrency, surpassing “dogecoin killer” Shiba Inu and “Ethereum killer” Polkadot.
Who owns the most dogecoins?
Over the years, there has been a lot of speculation about who has the most dogecoins or who are the biggest dogecoin whales. A crypto whale is an entity – be it an institution, individual or exchange – that owns a significant amount of a digital asset and therefore can influence the price.
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In 2021, news reports started referencing a “mysterious dogecoin whale” who owned $22bn of the asset at the time. Some alleged that that person was Elon Musk, as his support for the cryptocurrency was documented online in a series of twitter posts and during an appearance in an episode of Saturday Night Live (SNL). But there is no evidence to support the claim that it was him.
Other guesses included the US-based trading platform Robinhood (HOOD), however, the company’s CEO Vlad Tenev denied the rumours.
According to data provided by intotheblock, there are seven top holders of dogecoin, as of 29 July. The wallets are anonymous due to the decentralised nature of cryptocurrencies. Intotheblock noted that the biggest DOGE whale owns 30.16% of the total circulating supply of the cryptocurrency.
The top holder’s account’s balance surpassed 40.84 bn DOGE coins which amounted to $2.55bn at the time of writing. According to blockchair, the account’s address is DPDLBAe3RGQ2GiPxDzhgjcmpZCZD8cSBgZ.
The second biggest dogecoin whale owned just 5.35% of the total circulating supply of the cryptocurrency which amounted to 7.25bn DOGE tokens ($452.1m, as of the time of writing).
“You would be surprised at how many crypto currency token supplies that are owned by a handful of people. It is concerning but it is telling that crypto is no different than the financial industry in terms of whales,” Mark Basa, the director at HOKK Finance, told Capital.com.
Anndy Lian, chairman of BigONE Exchange and the author of Blockchain Revolution 2030, told Capital.com that dogecoin concentration may be a real issue.
“The whales can single-handedly bring Dogecoin and its ecosystem down. This is a big flaw in the design and the similar outcomes can actually happen in many other top coins too. Personally, I think influencers like Elon Musk and Mark Cuban saw this issue and are the earliest to step in to instil confidence to avoid possible mass panic sell by regular holders,” he told Capital.com.
Lian also referenced the speculations that the biggest dogecoin holders were either Musk or Cuban but noted that who the owner is, is not as important.
“It is the behaviour and intention that matters most. If the top holder believes in the coin and is willing to build the ecosystem, I respect that. If they just want to sell their investment off, I hope they can offload it in batches. Offloading is also a good thing as the coin can become more decentralised.”
Dogecoin reveals the biggest whale wallet
Dogecoin has also addressed the speculations and rumours surrounding who the biggest dogecoin holders are.
Dogecoin said that “many of the top Dogecoin wallets are cold wallets or hot wallets controlled by exchanges and brokers, and they thus represent Dogecoin held in custody for thousands – or hundreds of thousands, even – of people.”
The meme coin’s team noted that many of the biggest holder wallets appear to be managed by trading platforms, as they exhibit patterns of activity and volume that are typical of crypto exchanges or brokerage services holding large amounts of collateral.
“In particular, the Dogecoin community has identified the exchanges and brokerage platforms behind some of the largest wallets, including the infamous ‘whale’ holding 30% of the supply… As it turned out, that infamous whale wallet, which was split across several addresses in October/November 2021, contains the holdings of hundreds of thousands of retail holders,” Dogecoin noted.
What does ownership concentration mean for the token?
CoinLoan’s digital assets analyst, Maxim Shilo, noted that knowing who owns the most dogecoins is as important as knowing how many shares Apple investors have.
“If you are already an investor or want to become one, then it is certainly necessary to understand what can become catalysts for growth or decline. Knowing who owns the most Dogecoin can give you an advantage in the marketplace,” he told Capital.com.
HOKK Finance’s Basa added that knowing who the top dogecoin holders are could expose their motives.
“Let’s say that an old rumour I read on the Doge reddit is true: that a foreign nation, or foreign investor, owned a huge supply of Doge and was using it to drain funds from the common retail investor.
“If so, Doge has a serious enemy and the world should know. If exposed, then there could be a huge sell-off, or a massive withdraw of Doge from centralised exchanges where investors would store their Doge on cold wallets in order to come together and show the community’s strength, similar to the Gamestop scenario, where the power of the community liquidated some serious hedge fund shorting the company’s stock.”
CoiLoan’s Shilo added that DOGE can be a great investment for novice traders since it is known for its “massive pumps,” however, highlighted that “owning it comes with risks… as it has a structure, in which most of the tokens are found in 1-2 wallets.
“This negatively affects the characteristics of the token. When there is such a concentration of coins, there is a chance that at any moment these wallets may be hacked, or the owner could be tempted to arrange dump and pump schemes.”
Note that analysts’ predictions and opinions can be wrong. Knowing and following the biggest cryptocurrency whales shouldn’t be used as a substitute for your own research. Always conduct your own due diligence before trading. And never invest or trade money you cannot afford to lose.
FAQs
How many dogecoin holders are there?
Blockchair data as of 29 July estimated that there are around 40 million DOGE addresses, however, not all may hold the digital assets.
How many dogecoin millionaires are there?
According to Blockchair, as of 29 July there are seven DOGE whales and 56 investors who all hold over $1m worth of dogecoin.
How much dogecoin does Elon Musk own?
Elon Musk never reported his dogecoin holdings. During Tesla’s Q2 2022 investor call, Musk disclosed that the company held dogecoin, but didn’t report the amount.
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