The dog behind the viral internet meme Doge, who inspired a well-known cryptocurrency, has died at the age of 18. Kabosu, the Shiba Inu, died on 24 May in the presence of her owner, Atsuko Sato, according to the official blog for the dog . Kabosu had been suffering from leukaemia and liver disease.
Sato announced Kabosu's death through a poem which reads: The poem has been translated from Japanese to English for this article. A farewell party is planned for Kabosu on Sunday at a Japanese flower shop. In 2010, Sato uploaded images of the dog onto the internet, which started circulating on different social media platforms such as Tumblr and Reddit.
One particular image of Kabosu went viral in 2013 and became an internet meme called Doge. The image was paired with broken English text to depict the character Doge's inner monologue. Doge's popularity exploded in subsequent years, with big brands and advertisers adopting it for their campaigns.
In 2013, the meme also inspired the well-known cryptocurrency Dogecoin, which became the first meme-coin. With the general rise of cryptocurrency, Dogecoin fell into relative popular use, even being supported by Elon Musk, who helped spike its value. The currency has a market cap of more than $22 billion.
Doge has remained a popular piece of internet culture, inspiring various meme offshoots and templates. Doge has even had side characters, like the Shiba Inu Cheems, who was based on a real dog, Balltze, from Hong Kong. ALSO READ | Dogecoin .
