• Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin makes a dramatic appearance at the EDCON event in Tokyo, identifying himself as a Dogecoin (DOGE) holder. 

• His interest in the meme coin dates back to 2016 when he invested $25,000 in the asset and joined the advisory board of the Dogecoin Foundation in 2021. 

Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin makes a surprise declaration, positioning himself as a Dogecoin (DOGE) whale during his presentation at the 2024 Ethereum Development Conference (EDCON) in Tokyo, Japan. 

This interesting moment highlighted at the event came when Buterin appeared on stage in a dark kimono garment with a white horse head mask and black details. Appearing almost anonymous, the audience queried his identity, and he identified himself as a Dogecoin holder. The Ethereum co-founder pulled off his mask to clear their doubts, diffusing the auditorium with laughter. 

Everyone: Who are you?
V: I’m a Dogecoin hodler.#EDCON2024 @dogecoin @VitalikButerin pic.twitter.com/Uyj9A0U8k3— EDCON (@EDCON2024) July 30, 2024

Soon after this humorous moment, Buterin delved into Ethereum’s future trajectory for the next ten years. However, his earlier declaration as a Dogecoin holder kept “ringing in people’s heads.” 

To avoid doubt, Buterin has publicly announced his interest in the meme coin on multiple occasions. One such moment was his appearance on a podcast hosted by Lex Friedman in June 2021. At that time, he disclosed that Dogecoin was one of the meme coins that interested him. Also, he revealed he had invested $25,000 into the asset in 2016, raking in $4.3 million in June 2021. According to him, there were no fundamentals behind his Dogecoin investment. However, it remains his best choice ever. 

More on the Buterin-Dogecoin Relationship

In 2022, Buterin donated $1 million worth of Ethereum to the Dogecoin Foundation, breeding speculations of an imminent collaboration between the two. Within that year, Buterin also donated 20 million DOGE to the Dogecoin Foundation. Before that, the Ethereum co-founder had joined the advisory board of the Dogecoin Foundation and even discussed the possibility of Dogecoin switching to Proof-of-Stake in an interview. 

Even though similar support has not been channeled to Shiba Inu (SHIB), Buterin admits that the asset has exceeded his expectations. In the early days of SHIB, half of the entire supply was transferred to Buterin. However, he burned $410 trillion of the tokens and sent the rest to non-profits. 

According to Buterin, he believed Shiba Inu would crash shortly after receiving the tokens.

It’s the same situation as with cryptorelief: I quickly sent a pile of SHIB, thinking it would surely drop 100x in a few days so I had to act fast, and expecting they would be able to cash out at most like $10-25m.  But of course, SHIB massively outperformed my expectations.

DOGE and SHIB are the two biggest meme coins in the ecosystem, with $16 billion and $9 billion market caps, respectively. According to a popular crypto analyst, Ali Martinez, DOGE could soon witness a surge of between 140% and 230%. 

Dogecoin is playing the same pattern we’ve seen before. It consolidates in a descending triangle, sees a 140% to 230% rally, and retraces by 56% to 60% before entering a bull run.

The meme coin is currently trading at $0.1162 after declining by 3% in the last 24 hours and 10% in the last seven days. 

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