Markus reportedly has ‘only’ 220,000 DOGE tokens in his possession. Despite many people not taking DOGE seriously, he says he respects the developers who keep working on it.
Markus shares his thoughts on Twitter
Billy Markus, co-founder of the original meme coin Dogecoin, reminded his followers on Twitter that he does not speak on behalf of Dogecoin. He also revealed his exact Dogecoin holding: 220,000 DOGE, approximately $41,800 at current prices.
In a thread posted on Sunday, Markus (Shibetoshi Nakamoto on Twitter) reiterated that he is no longer working on the Dogecoin project. Mark says the following:
“I’m not in the project. I am a member of the community and have about 220,000 Doge.”
Yet another reminder:
I don’t speak for dogecoin.
I am not on the project. I am a community member. I hold about 220k doge.
I will defend those who I feel are actively making the space better. I will discourage those who I feel aren’t.
I will talk about whatever I want.
— Shibetoshi Nakamoto (@BillyM2k) December 27, 2021
Furthermore, Markus indicated that he will never return to coding his creation. He said the following about this:
“Working on a crypto project is terrible. I’ve found that the more you do for people, the more rights they get and the worse they treat you.”
When Billy comes back to coding his creation.. pic.twitter.com/YnuJDLz752
— JoseAParra (@JoseAParraJr) December 27, 2021
Despite his frustrations, Markus says he respects the developers who have volunteered to go ahead with the Dogecoin project. Mark said:
“I will defend those who I think are actively improving the space. Also I will discourage those who do not.”
Musk as the most loyal supporter
Launched in 2013 by Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer as a joke, Dogecoin has become a very popular digital asset. This is partly thanks to Elon Musk as the main supporter. Musk has promoted DOGE repeatedly this year. After his company Tesla reversed course by accepting Bitcoin payments, Musk embraced Dogecoin even more strongly.
Ironically, Shiba Inu (SHIB), created as a parody of DOGE, outperformed DOGE in 2021. The altcoin rose by about 42,000%, versus DOGE’s price increase of about 3,000%.
Still, SHIB is only worth a fraction of a cent, while DOGE is worth 20 cents. According to data from CoinMarketCap.com, DOGE is currently the No. 12 cryptocurrency, with a market cap of $25.56 billion.