Kabosu, the Japanese dog who became a global meme and the face of the alternative cryptocurrency Dogecoin, has died at age 18, his owner announced in a blog post on Friday.
The Japanese Shiba Inu died in his sleep, wrote his owner Atsuko Sato.
Kabosu became recognizable as the face of Dogecoin, an alternative cryptocurrency that began as a satirical critique of the 2013 crypto frenzy.
But the token's value jumped after Tesla boss Elon Musk, a cryptocurrency advocate, started tweeting about it in 2020. Since then, the billionaire has repeatedly promoted the coin.
Dogecoin added up to $4 billion to its market value last year when the billionaire, who bought social media site Twitter in 2022, briefly replaced Twitter's bluebird logo with an image of Kabosu. Musk later renamed Twitter X.
With a market capitalization of around $23.6 billion, Dogecoin is now the ninth-largest cryptocurrency, according to data site Coingecko.com. โThe impact this dog has had around the world is immeasurable,โ Dogecoin posted on social media site X on Friday.
