Kabosu is an internet icon, even if you don’t know her name. The Shiba Inu is the dog that inspired the doge meme, which inspired several cryptocurrencies, including Dogecoin and Shiba Inu, which are now worth more than $70 billion. Kabosu celebrated her 16th birthday on Tuesday.
Kabosu has her own Instagram account, where her owner posted in celebration of her special day. Because that’s how legends live, the photo has over 55,000 likes.
Kabosu, a rescue dog who was adopted in 2008, rose to fame in 2010 when she was a sprightly 5-year-old. Kabosu’s owner blogged about her, including photos of the Shiba Inu. Kabosu is laying on a couch with her paws crossed and a worried expression on her face in one. From there, the internet took over, adding the doge talk you’re now familiar with. The doge meme was created.
CNET reported in an article, “Never in a million years would I have imagined the impact that my photoshoot of Kabosu would have on the internet,” her owner wrote earlier this year on Instagram. “It’s a moment that has evolved and taken on a life of its own over the last decade, having been shared millions of times and spawning an entire community centred on the Doge meme.”
Three years after that fateful photograph, two software engineers decided to have some fun. They mocked Bitcoin’s absurdity by inventing Dogecoin, a digital currency with an infinite supply (compared with Bitcoin, which has a maximum supply of 21 million). Dogecoin took off unexpectedly, eventually becoming a meme in its own right. In fact, it gave rise to a new type of cryptocurrency known as “meme coins.”
Dogecoin now has a market cap of $35 billion thanks to Elon Musk’s assistance. Shiba Inu, which was inspired by Dogecoin, has become the hottest new coin, with a market cap that has surpassed Dogecoins. The two meme coins have a market cap of more than $70 billion combined, and they are far from the only coins inspired by the Original Doge.
