The Shiba Inu that inspired Dogecoin crypto and countless memes has died

Atsuko Sato is seen with her Japanese shiba inu dog Kabosu, best known as the logo of cryptocurrency Dogecoin, playing with students at a kindergarten in Narita, Chiba prefecture, east of Tokyo, on March 19.

Philip Fong/AFP via Getty Images

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Kabosu, the Shiba Inu that inspired the famous “Doge” meme and the Dogecoin cryptocurrency, has died at the age of 18, her owner announced.

Atsuko Sato, a teacher in Japan, shared in a blog post that Kabosu “fell into a deep sleep” on Friday morning.

Kabosu became an internet sensation after Sato posted a now-iconic photo of the rescue dog to her blog in 2010. The image, featuring Kabosu's side-eyed look and crossed paws, quickly spread across social media.

Meme creators added rainbow Comic Sans text to the photo, narrating the dog's inner thoughts with humorous, broken phrases like “much wow” and “such happy.” This gave rise to the “Doge” meme, with the intentional misspelling credited to a 2005 episode of the animated comedy web series Homestar Runner.

The meme gained further fame with the launch of Dogecoin in 2013. Originally created as a joke to mock cryptocurrencies, Dogecoin saw a significant increase in value years later, particularly after endorsements from Elon Musk. The tech billionaire, who has been a vocal supporter of Dogecoin, mourned Kabosu's death by posting a picture on X (formerly Twitter) of Harambe, another late meme icon, hugging Kabosu in heaven. Following Musk's tribute, Dogecoin spiked by 5%.

Kabosu had been facing health issues in recent years. In 2022, Sato revealed that Kabosu had been diagnosed with acute cholangiohepatitis, an inflammatory liver condition, and chronic lymphoma leukemia, a type of blood cancer.

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