Billy Markus has publicly stated that his net worth is well under $1 million. Markus revealed on Twitter that he owns 220,000 Dogecoin tokens which is worth $70,200 (as of January 27 2025). A relatively small amount for starting one of the top cryptocurrencies.
Through co-founding the first meme coin, Billy Markus (aka Shibetoshi Nakamoto) made his mark on the crypto space. The software engineer never expected the idea to blow up and become a lucrative venture! With around 147 billion Dogecoin in existence, his creation now has a market cap of $47 billion.
Early Life
Billy Markus was born in Oregon in 1983. Like a lot of crypto enthusiasts, Markus got interested in computers and programming at a young age. In addition, Billy has been friends with Dogecoin co-founder Jackson Palmer since childhood and both have the same enthusiasm for technology.
Working As a Software Engineer
Before becoming one of the most influential names in the crypto industry, Markus worked as a software engineer. While working for IBM, he became dissatisfied with his job and began working on side projects. The majority of the projects were crypto-related and this sparked the concept of what we know today as Dogecoin.
Creating Dogecoin
Markus connected with his friend Jackson Palmer on Twitter and joked, “Investing in Dogecoin, pretty sure it’s the next big thing.” Then, on December 8, 2013, Markus and Palmer decided to release their digital currency out into the world.
The small team of two decided Dogecoin would be ideal against the context of cryptocurrencies’ shady reputation at the time because it was created around community and humor.
Palmer bought the domain Dogecoin.com, inserted the coin’s iconic logo and a generic Comic Sans typeface, and handed the project to Markus to finish. Using his knowledge as a software engineer, Markus leveraged Luckycoin and Litecoin as a basis for Dogecoin.
Becoming an Influencer
Markus shifted his priority to social media and crypto in June 2014, just seven months after the birth of Dogecoin. And as fate would have it, his social media activities aligned with the dramatic rise in popularity of the meme cryptocurrency. Dogecoin’s popularity soared after its inception, with over a million visitors going to its website in the first month.
However, he and Palmer decided to leave Dogecoin in the same year it was launched, saying that the crypto community was not very welcoming to their unconventional achievement.
But the good news is, Billy Markus is now back. Seven years after leaving the industry he played a role in building, Shibetoshi Nakamoto is back on the web doing what he does best yet again. Currently, Shibetoshi has over 2.1 million followers on Twitter!
— Shibetoshi Nakamoto (@BillyM2k) January 6, 2023
