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Agence France-Presse

The Japanese dog whose photo inspired a generation of oddball online jokes and the US$23-billion Dogecoin cryptocurrency beloved by Elon Musk died on Friday, her owner said.
“She quietly passed away as if asleep while I caressed her,” Atsuko Sato wrote on her blog, thanking the fans of her Shiba Inu called Kabosu – the face of the “Doge” meme.
“I think Kabo-chan was the happiest dog in the world. And I was the happiest owner,” Sato wrote.
As a rescue dog, Kabosu’s real birthday was unknown, but Sato estimated her age at 18, past the average lifespan for a Shiba Inu, with her birthday celebrated in November.

In 2010, two years after adopting Kabosu from a puppy mill where she would otherwise have been put down, Sato took a picture of her pet crossing her paws on the sofa.
She posted that image – with the fluffy Shiba Inu giving the camera a beguiling look – on her blog, from where it spread to online forum Reddit and became a meme that bounced from college bedrooms to office email chains.
The memes typically used goofy broken English to reveal the inner thoughts of Kabosu and other Shiba Inu “doge” – pronounced like pizza “dough” but with a “j” at the end.


The picture also later became an NFT digital artwork that sold for US$4 million and inspired Dogecoin, which was started as a joke by two software engineers and is now the eighth-most valuable cryptocurrency with a market capitalisation of US$23 billion.
Dogecoin has been backed by hip-hop star Snoop Dogg, “Shark Tank” entrepreneur Mark Cuban and Kiss bassist Gene Simmons.
But its most keen supporter is probably the billionaire Musk, who jokes about the currency on X – sending its value soaring – and hails it as “the people’s crypto”.
Dogecoin has also inspired a plethora of other cheap and highly volatile “memecoins”, including spin-off Shiba Inu and others based on dogs, cats or Donald Trump.

Kabosu fell ill with leukaemia and liver disease in late 2022, and Sato said in a recent interview in her home of Sakura, east of Tokyo, that the “invisible power” of prayers from fans worldwide helped her pull through.
The 62-year-old Sato said she had become so used to “unbelievable” events that, when Tesla boss Musk changed the icon for Twitter, now X, to Kabosu’s face last year, she “wasn’t even that surprised”.
“In the last few years I’ve been able to connect the online version of Kabosu, all these unexpected things seen from a distance, with our real lives,” she said.

A US$100,000 statue of Kabosu and her sofa crowdfunded by Own The Doge, a cryptocurrency organisation dedicated to the meme, was unveiled in a park in Sakura in November last year.
Sato and Own The Doge have also donated large sums to international charities, including more than US$1 million to Save the Children. The NGO says it is “the single largest crypto contribution” it has ever received.
“The Doge is the most popular dog of the modern era,” said Tridog, a pseudonymous member of Own The Doge, describing Kabosu as “the Mona Lisa of the internet”.


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Japan

Japanese dog who inspired ‘Dogecoin’ meme, beloved by Elon Musk, has died

The Japanese dog that inspired the ‘Dogecoin’ cryptocurrency has passed away. Photo: Shutterstock

Atsuko Sato with Kabosu, best known as the logo of cryptocurrency Dogecoin, playing with students at a kindergarten in Narita, Chiba prefecture, east of Tokyo. Photo: AFP

Kabosu’s photo inspired a generation of oddball online jokes and the US$23-billion Dogecoin cryptocurrency. Photo: AFP

Kabosu, best known as the logo of cryptocurrency Dogecoin, has passed away. Photo: AFP

She’s the dog whose face launched cryptocurrency Dogecoin. To shiba inu Kabosu’s fans she’s ‘Mona Lisa of the internet’

The photo of shiba inu Kabosu posted online in 2010 by Atsuko Sato, who adopted her as a rescue puppy. It spawned online memes, one of which led to the creation of the cryptocurrency Dogecoin, and was turned into an NFT. Photo: Handout

Atsuko Sato and her Japanese shiba inu dog Kabosu, whose picture spawned online memes that led to the cryptocurrency Dogecoin being created, greet children at a kindergarten in Narita, east of Tokyo. Photo: AFP

Kabosu in her cart sitting in front of a manhole cover featuring her image at a park in Sakura, eastern Tokyo. Photo: AFP

Atsuko Sato with Kabosu at a statue of the dog recently installed in Sakura, eastern Tokyo. Photo: AFP

Tridog, a member of Own the Doge, wearing a Doge mask in Los Angeles, California. Photo: AFP

A Dogecoin featuring the face of Kabosu. Photo: Shutterstock

A sticker of Kabosu on the car of her owner, Atsuko Sato. Photo: AFP

When Kabosu dies, “the world will mourn”, Tridog says, but “a legend always lives on”. Photo: AFP

‘Cheems’, the Hong Kong Shiba Inu dog who went viral as doge meme and became face of a cryptocurrency, dies after a battle with cancer

Balltze, the face of the ‘Cheems’ doge memes, died after a battle with cancer, his Hong Kong owner wrote in a heartfelt tribute on Instagram. Photo: Instagram / @Balltze

News

Asia

East Asia

Rescue dog, Kabosu, whose photo inspired a generation of oddball online jokes and the US$23-billion Dogecoin cryptocurrency, has died
Kabosu’s real birthday was unknown, but her owner estimated her age at 18, past the average lifespan for a Shiba Inu


Rescue dog, Kabosu, whose photo inspired a generation of oddball online jokes and the US$23-billion Dogecoin cryptocurrency, has died.


Japanese dog who inspired ‘Dogecoin’ meme, beloved by Elon Musk, has died

Rescue dog, Kabosu, whose photo inspired a generation of oddball online jokes and the US$23-billion Dogecoin cryptocurrency, has died Kabosu’s real birthday was unknown, but her owner estimated her age at 18, past the average lifespan for a Shiba Inu

Rescue dog, Kabosu, whose photo inspired a generation of oddball online jokes and the US$23-billion Dogecoin cryptocurrency, has died

Kabosu’s real birthday was unknown, but her owner estimated her age at 18, past the average lifespan for a Shiba Inu