Dogecoin: Is Robinhood an investment whale?

Dogecoin investors remain curious of a “whale” — or one major investor — who is holding all of the cards with Dogecoin. But one suspect recently denied any involvement.

Who is the Dogecoin whale?

The Wall Street Journal reported back in February that there was one person — or business or entity — that owned 28% of all dogecoin out there at that time. The value of dogecoins at that moment would have made the investment worth $2.1 billion.

• That number is now worth $2.5 billion, according to MarketWatch.

Tom Robinson, chief scientist and co-founder of Elliptic, told Bloomberg he thought Robinhood was the sole owner of that stake.

• “It almost certainly belongs to Robinhood,” he said. “The timing of its creation, and the creation of the addresses that it received funds from, match the timing of Robinhood’s support of Dogecoin.”

But Vlad Tenev, CEO of Robinhood Markets, recently dispelled that rumor in a presentation hosted by Robinhood.

• “Any coins that we hold are for the purposes of sort of providing access in holdings for our customers,” Tenev said, according to MarketWatch. “We don’t have significant positions in any of the coins that we keep on a proprietary basis or anything like that.”

The Dogecoin ‘whale’ theory, explained

A theory among investors suggested that there’s a single, wealthy investor — called a “whale” — who is suppressing the value of Dogecoin, as I wrote for the Deseret News.

Some investors on Reddit believe “that a single whale is keeping the price of DOGE down by selling off millions of the tokens every hour,” according to InvestorPlace.

• “DOGE investors on the forum are buying into the idea that one large whale is responsible for the price suppression theory,” according to InvestorPlace.

But then there’s the other side of the theory, which posits that the “whale” sell-off is actually just investors cashing out when Dogecoin reaches a high value, as I explained for the Deseret News.