He’s Not a Dogecoin Millionaire. Because He Didn’t Sell

Glauber Contessoto put everything he had into Dogecoin, a highly volatile cryptocurrency that was originally invented as a joke. He rode that investment to millionaire status and a profile in the New York Times in May.

Then came the crash.

Contessoto, 33, invested in Dogecoin last February, according to the New York Times report. The investor used all his savings and credit card debt to invest $250,000 in the cryptocurrency. Last month his holdings touched $2 million. In a tweet in April, he claimed to be the “first Dogecoin millionaire of 2021.”

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But despite the surge in value of the coin, rising more than 12,000% from January to its peak in May, Contessoto didn’t cash out. Now, the price of the “meme coin” has dropped dramatically—along with the rest of the market. Today, Dogecoin was trading at $0.19, a 40% decline in value from last week. 

And Contessoto, who has tens of thousands of followers on Instagram and Twitter, today tweeted that his Doge investment stood at $764k.

Thousands liked and responded to the investor’s tweet, with some reminding him that he is no longer a millionaire. (He could have sniped back by reminding them he’s still up 3X on his investment.)

Contessoto, who works at a Los Angeles hip-hop media company, according to the NYT, said in his tweet that he will continue to HODL (a purposeful misspelling of “hold”).

“IF I CAN HODL YOU CAN HODL!!! #DiamondHands this is the way #dogecoin we will rise again,” the tweet read. 

Dogecoin was invented in 2013 to poke fun at Bitcoin. The developers behind the coin wanted to make a silly cryptocurrency with no real value—and even based its image on a popular internet meme. But fast forward to today and the cryptocurrency is the seventh-most valuable out there, with a market cap of over $25 billion.

Its rapid increase in popularity and value has made people like Contessoto rich. Dogecoin’s rise over the last year is partly down to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, one of the richest men in the world, who has said it is his favorite crypto and has influenced its wild price swings with his tweets.

One of the developers behind the cryptocurrency, Ross Nicoll, even told Decrypt last month that the development team is now working on making it a serious project—hoping to rival Bitcoin as a quick, cheap, and green payment method. Nicoll today updated his followers on Twitter on the team’s progress, to which Musk responded: “This is an important improvement.”

Meanwhile, however, the entire crypto market is suffering at the moment. Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, today dipped below $30,000 for the first time since January. Altcoins, which typically follow Bitcoin sell-offs, have followed. Some experts have even said that we are now entering a bear market. 

Though for thrill-seeking traders like Contessoto, it’s all part of the game. “I STILL BELIEVE IN #DOGECOIN,” he said on Twitter.