Who owns the most dogecoins? Biggest whales revealed
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!
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”.
dearest @Twitter,
— Shibetoshi Nakamoto (@BillyM2k) February 22, 2022
please add #dogecoin to the Twitter tip jar options, it just makes too much sense - the OG tipping cryptocurrency on the internet belongs there #DogeTwitterTipJar
everyone else can sign the petition: https://t.co/rvknI6lJzp
5000+ shibes strong and counting! pic.twitter.com/HEZs3VytAT
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 is the people’s crypto
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 4, 2021
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.
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).
Anndy Lian, chairman of BigONE Exchange and the author of Blockchain Revolution 2030, told Capital.com that dogecoin concentration may be a real issue.
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.
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.
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.
HOKK Finance’s Basa added that knowing who the top dogecoin holders are could expose their motives.
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.
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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