When you ask how much money did doge get, you’re basically looking at two different worlds. One is a Japanese kindergarten teacher named Atsuko Sato and her rescued Shiba Inu, Kabosu. The other is a digital currency that started as a total joke and somehow ended up being worth more than some airline companies.
It’s a wild story.
Most people don't realize that the "Doge" in the memes and the "Doge" in the crypto world had very different financial journeys. While the coin turned a few lucky Redditors into millionaires, the real-life dog behind the photo didn't see a dime of that for a very long time. Honestly, the scale of the money involved is kind of hard to wrap your head around once you get into the billions.
The Viral Photo and the $4 Million NFT
For years, Atsuko Sato didn't make anything from the famous photo of Kabosu. She took the picture in 2008 and posted it to her blog in 2010. By the time it became the face of the internet in 2013, she was just happy people liked her dog.
Things changed in 2021.
That was the year NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) went absolutely nuclear. Sato decided to auction the original "Doge" photo as an NFT on a platform called Zora. A bidding war broke out, and a group called PleasrDAO eventually won.
The final price? 1,696.9 Ethereum.
At the time, that was worth roughly $4 million.
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Sato didn't just hoard the cash, though. She and PleasrDAO have since donated over $1 million of those proceeds to various international charities, including Save the Children. It’s probably the most wholesome way a meme has ever been "monetized."
How Much Money Did Doge Get in the Crypto World?
The cryptocurrency Dogecoin (DOGE) is where the numbers get really stupid.
Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer created it in 2013 in about three hours. They literally used a font called Comic Sans. They wanted to make fun of the "serious" crypto coins like Bitcoin.
Early on, the community focused on "tipping." If you wrote a funny comment on Reddit, someone might send you 500 DOGE. Back then, that was worth maybe half a penny.
But then the 2021 bull run happened.
Driven by TikTok trends and Elon Musk’s tweets, the price of one Dogecoin went from fractions of a cent to a peak of about $0.73 in May 2021. At that exact moment, the total market cap of Dogecoin—meaning the combined value of every coin in existence—hit **$88.8 billion**.
Think about that. A joke about a dog was worth more than SpaceX or Nintendo for a brief window of time.
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Even now, in January 2026, the coin remains a heavyweight. While it’s far below those all-time highs, it still sits in the top 10 cryptocurrencies globally. As of this week, the market cap is hovering around $23 billion, with the price per coin at roughly $0.14.
The Famous Charity Wins
One of the coolest parts of the Doge story is how the community used "doge money" for actual good before the coin became a speculative asset.
In 2014, the Jamaican Bobsled team qualified for the Winter Olympics in Sochi but didn't have the money to actually get there. The Dogecoin community stepped in. They raised about $30,000 in DOGE within a single day.
They didn't stop there.
- Doge4Water: The community raised $50,000 to build a well in the Tana River Basin in Kenya.
- NASCAR: They raised $55,000 to sponsor driver Josh Wise, wrapping his car in a giant "Doge" decal. It was ridiculous and amazing.
- The Kabosu Statue: More recently, fans crowdfunded $100,000 to build a physical bronze statue of Kabosu and her famous sofa in Sakura, Japan.
Why the Numbers Keep Changing
If you're trying to pin down an exact figure for how much money did doge get, it’s a moving target.
The coin doesn't have a supply cap. Every year, 5 billion new Dogecoins are mined. This means the "money" involved is constantly expanding. It’s inflationary by design, which Billy Markus originally did to keep people from hoarding it like Bitcoin.
He wanted people to actually spend it.
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The original creators, funnily enough, didn't get rich from the 2021 pump. Billy Markus has famously said he sold all his DOGE in 2015 for about the price of a used Honda Civic. He basically missed out on hundreds of millions of dollars because he thought the joke was over.
Real-World Insights for You
If you’re looking at these numbers and thinking about jumping in, here’s the reality of the situation:
1. Meme coins are volatile. Dogecoin can drop 20% because of a single tweet or a "boring" SNL appearance. Don't put money in that you need for rent.
2. Watch the "Whales." A huge percentage of all Dogecoin is held by a few anonymous wallets. If one of them decides to sell, the price crashes.
3. It’s about the community. DOGE survives because of its "Do Only Good Everyday" (DOGE) mantra. Without the memes and the community spirit, it’s just code.
4. The NFT is separate. Don't confuse the $4 million NFT sale with the coin's value. The NFT is a one-of-a-kind digital collectible owned by a DAO; the coin is a medium of exchange.
If you want to track the "money" in real-time, your best bet is to check a site like CoinMarketCap or CoinGecko. Just remember that the "billions" you see in the market cap aren't sitting in a bank account—it’s just the theoretical value if everyone could sell at once (which they can't).
The legacy of Doge isn't just the dollar sign; it's the fact that a picture of a confused Shiba Inu changed how we think about money and internet culture forever.
Next Steps for You:
If you're interested in the financial side, look up "Dogecoin market cap" on a live tracker to see today's exact valuation. If you're more into the history, check out the "Own The Doge" project, which is the group that bought the NFT and continues to run charity drives in Kabosu's name.