Dogecoin’s $2 billion ‘whale’ might be Robinhood, according to Redditors | Currency News | Financial and Business News

News of a  dogecoin “whale” owning $2.1 billion, or 28% of all dogecoin in circulation, has been swirling over the last few days, but the person or entity has not been identified. 

A detailed post on Reddit this week makes the case, however, that the largest holder of the meme-based token is Robinhood Markets.

The timing of Robinhood offering dogecoin trading to its users in July 2018 aligns with the creation of the initial digital wallet used for storage of the massive hoard of the token, according to the post on r/dogecoin. The wallet in question was created in June 2018, according to blockchain data tracker Elliptic.

“It almost certainly belongs to Robinhood,” Tom Robinson, chief scientist and co-founder of Elliptic, told Bloomberg. “The timing of its creation, and the creation of the addresses that it received funds from, match the timings of Robinhood’s support of dogecoin.”

Many observers have puzzled over the identity of the whale, including including Tesla’s Elon Musk. On February 15, Musk said the real problem of dogecoin is its concentration among a few holders. 

“If major Dogecoin holders sell most of their coins, it will get my full support,” Musk said in a tweet. “Too much concentration is the only real issue imo (in my opinion). I will literally pay actual $ if they just void their accounts.”

Internet sleuths have pointed to Musk as the possible mega-investor since the account in question has received 28.061971 dogecoins on more than one occasion, as the Wall Street Journal first reported. Followers of Musk were quick to point out that the billionaire’s birthday is on June 28, 1971.

Musk, for his part, is pointing his fingers at Robinhood.

On February 17, The Tesla founder left a brief comment on a viral Twitter post suspecting the trading app of being the largest holder.

Musk simply replied: “Sounds like it is.”

Robinhood the next day, neither confirmed nor denied its ownership. In a tweet, the trading platform said, “We understand that the community wants more insight into which addresses belong to us and how we operate our wallets.” 

But it added, “Just like other crypto platforms, for operational security reasons and to protect customer privacy, we will not confirm which addresses do or do not belong to us.”

The cryptocurrency, which started as a joke in 2013, recently touched a valuation of $10 billion, making it more valuable than some household names, including Shake Shack and Under Armour.