Benzinga - A Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE) wallet that had remained inactive for over 9.3 years suddenly came to life on Tuesday.
What Happened: The wallet, which had been dormant since its creation, now holds more than $1.31 million worth of Dogecoin, as per data from Blockchair.
This development coincides with Jeremy Allaire, the CEO of Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, expressing his expectation of significant demand for various digital assets, including Dogecoin, Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC), Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH), and Cardano (CRYPTO: ADA), in emerging markets, with Hong Kong and China at the center of attention.
Given the substantial period of dormancy, it is speculated that the wallet owner acquired these tokens shortly after Doge co-creators Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer launched the first-ever meme coin back in 2013.
Dogecoin emerged as an unexpected creation, originating as a playful collaboration between two engineers, Markus and Palmer. Despite never having met each other, they managed to combine the concepts of Bitcoin and the internet sensation “doge” to create something new and unique: Dogecoin.
To Markus and Palmer’s surprise, Dogecoin gained immediate traction upon its release. Within its first month, over a million people visited the dogecoin.com website, eager to engage with this novel cryptocurrency.
The popularity of the “doge” meme, featuring an adorable Shiba Inu dog with thought bubbles expressing simple and often humorous ideas in Comic Sans font, further fueled the attraction towards Dogecoin. This meme became a versatile medium for conveying various messages, ranging from jokes about everyday experiences like naps and diets to more whimsical topics such as space exploration.
Considering the low token price at the time, the 2 million DOGE tokens could have been valued at a mere $424, based on the historical price of $0.0002114 per token as reported by CoinMarketCap in November 2014. This means an increase of 30,838.2% in the last 9 years.
It should be noted that Markus said that while he was an early investor in DOGE but sold all of his holdings in 2015 during the "dead days of crypto."
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Why It Matters: The reasons behind crypto addresses going dormant remain elusive, with various theories circulating within the crypto community.
One plausible assumption is that early adopters acquired the tokens and held onto them, anticipating a surge in prices over the years.
Price Action: At the time of writing, DOGE was trading at $0.065, up 0.67% in the last 24 hours, according to data from Benzinga Pro.
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