Mysterious dogecoin whale sees holdings value plummet 67% from peak to $8 billion amid crypto meltdown | Currency News | Financial and Business News

The mysterious dogecoin whale that owns more than 28% of the circulating supply of the cryptocurrency has seen its holdings value decline 67% from its peak to $8.2 billion on Monday.

Dogecoin address DH5yaieqoZN36fDVciNyRueRGvGLR3mr7L owns nearly 37 billion dogecoins, which were worth more than $24 billion in early May. But a far reaching crypto meltdown has led to a steep decline in the value of the meme-inspired cryptocurrency in recent weeks.

Enthusiasm around dogecoin peaked around the same time Tesla CEO Elon Musk guest-hosted Saturday Night Live in early May. Musk made reference to dogecoin in a SNL skit, as many crypto traders were expecting. But since then, little has been able to stimulate demand for the cryptocurrency, which sees 5 billion new dogecoin come into existence every single year.

The dogecoin whale has not shed any of its holdings since the cryptocurrency peaked at $0.74 last month. In fact, the address has consistently been adding dogecoin in small increments. On Monday, the address added one dogecoin to its wallet. That follows several additions of various “meme” amounts to the wallet, including 4.20 dogecoins on June 10, and 6.9 dogecoins on June 9.

According to one crypto expert, the identity behind the dogecoin whale address is most likely a cryptocurrency exchange. That would line up with heightened speculation in that Robinhood is behind the dogecoin address.

Despite the decline in dogecoin, many still see potential for the cryptocurrency to hold utility as a viable form of payments. Several businesses now accept dogecoin as payment for its products, including the Dallas Mavericks basketball team and Oakland Athletics baseball team.

And Elon Musk’s call for dogecoin to be improved as a payment has seen responses flood in recently. Cardano creator Charles Hoskinson said if improved, dogecoin has potential for real-world use.

“Dogecoin is a reasonable target for someone to fix it up and make it an interesting cryptocurrency. My hope is that a compromise can be made where real developers come in, and they start working on doge to create some use and utility for it, so at least it has a value floor and won’t collapse,” Hoskinson said in a podcast on Friday.

While the volatility in dogecoin is likely to continue, so is the resilience of the mysterious dogecoin whale. Despite the 70% decline in dogecoin since its peak, the cryptocurrency is still up 4,508% year-to-date.