Dogecoin Co-Creator Says He Holds $42K Worth Of Meme Crypto, Will Not Return To Coding His Creation

Dogecoin DOGE/USD co-creator Billy Markus has revealed how much DOGE he holds and re-emphasized his right to voice an opinion as a community member.

What Happened: Markus tweeted Sunday that while he does not “speak for dogecoin” and he is not on the project, he is still a community member.

The DOGE co-creator said he holds about 220,000 DOGE. At press time, DOGE traded 0.5% lower at $0.19. This would make Markus’ holdings worth nearly $41,800. DOGE hit an all-time high of $0.74 in May of this year.

In a series of tweets on the same day, Markus said he will never go back to coding his creation. The developer said, “working on a crypto project is terrible as [I] have actually found the more you do for people, the more entitled they get and worse they treat you.”

In a tweet, Markus said he believes that “every person would become misanthropic in my position.”

Why It Matters: Dogecoin was co-created by Markus and Jackson Palmer in 2013. Palmer said this year he will not be returning to cryptocurrency.

Palmer described cryptocurrency as an “inherently right-wing, hyper-capitalistic technology built primarily to amplify the wealth of its proponents through a combination of tax avoidance, diminished regulatory oversight and artificially enforced scarcity,” according to an earlier report.

This year, Markus told Benzinga that he sold all his cryptocurrency holdings in 2015 for an amount equivalent to what a used Honda Civic would cost.

At the time, Markus liquidated his entire cryptocurrency portfolio for nearly $10,000.

While Markus may not be working on DOGE anymore, he began a foray into non-fungible tokens or NFTs in 2021. This summer, he released his “Crappy Doodle NFTs.” He has also sold some other pieces such as the “Capped Doge” which went for $70,000.

In August, Markus was named a board advisor to the revived Dogecoin Foundation, along with others such as Ethereum ETH/USD co-creator Vitalik Buterin.

After he was named advisor, he told Benzinga, “For me, I've more or less been keeping a pulse on the general Dogecoin community and have many conversations with community members, so I can bring that knowledge to the Foundation.”

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