The SlumDOGE Millionaire: How One Man Turned a Meme Coin Into a Fortune

As Dogecoin took off in mid-2021, Contessoto's holdings ballooned to $3 million, and he parlayed his good fortune into a sizable internet following

After splurging on Dogecoin in 2021, Contessoto’s holdings ballooned to $3 million, which he parlayed into a sizable internet following under the handle “SlumDOGE millionaire.”

But the good times didn’t last. Dogecoin plummeted from $0.53 to $0.06, and Conessoto lost both his millions and his celebrity status.

Yet he didn’t sell. He remained convinced that Dogecoin, and his social media accounts, would make their way back into the spotlight—and he was right.

Amid the current crypto boom, Dogecoin is soaring again and Contessoto’s fortune has grown back to more than $2 million. While he plans to sell a portion of it this time, he is still confident in the future of Dogecoin.

“Dogecoin, to me, it was always a conviction play… Once I dove into cryptocurrency, bitcoin, blockchain technology, and ultimately Doge, I was like, wow, this is a technology that’s not only here to stay, it’s going to thrive in the future,” Contessoto told Fortune.

When Fortune sought to verify the size of Contessoto’s investments, he declined to share his wallet address saying that he doesn’t want people to know exactly how much Dogecoin he has but that it is over 5 million. He also provided this screenshot.

After three lackluster years, Dogecoin has grown over 200% in the last month boosted by President-elect Donald Trump’s pro-crypto platform and Musk’s appointment to head the Department of Government Efficiency, or D.O.G.E — a nod to the billionaire’s favorite crypto.

Becoming the SlumDOGE Millionaire

When Contessoto splurged on Dogecoin, he was looking for ways to change his life. Upon googling “How to become a millionaire?” he found that most successful people have multiple streams of income and decided to start investing.

Intrigued by the explosive price action of crypto and Musk’s fascination with Dogecoin, Contessoto risked it all on the Shiba Inu-themed memecoin.

“Not only is this Dogecoin thing catchy, trendy, and I can see it gaining traction with millennials… but now we also have the richest man in the world that’s also a big fan of it,” he said.

Contessoto saw something in Dogecoin that was missing from most other cryptocurrencies: a familiar face. The doge meme — a sassy, orange Shiba Inu giving the side eye — popularized in 2013, is among the most ubiquitous internet memes, recognizable to almost any Gen Z or millenial.

He started posting YouTube videos, documenting how long it would take for him to become a millionaire. As his wallet grew, he gained hundreds of thousands of followers on YouTube and Twitter.

The Future of Dogecoin

When his wealth suddenly evaporated, many of his followers turned on him. Some were upset that they lost money investing in Dogecoin on his advice and others made fun of him for continuing to hold.

“Part of the reason why I didn’t sell was because I thought, in some weird way, it would have been hypocritical for me to tell everyone Dogecoin is the future…and then turn around and sell on everyone after I tell them to buy it,” he said.

The other reason he held on was because he truly believed that Dogecoin would rally again.

Contessoto recognizes that Dogecoin’s appeal is in its branding, connecting internet memes and pop culture with blockchain technology in a way no other coin has.

While Dogecoin may never be a store of value the same way as Bitcoin, Contessoto sees it as a gateway into the complicated world of crypto for new investors who are unfamiliar with the technology and its use cases.

“It’s like, you’re going to a party where you don’t know a single person, and then you recognize somebody from your class,” Contessoto said. “…You feel comfortable. It’s like, oh, I can get behind this. I totally understand this.”

Now that Dogecoin is tied to Musk’s efforts to curtail government spending, the coin will be brought to mind upon every mention of the tech billionaire and the Department of Government Efficiency. It has secured a lasting place in our culture that, Contessoto says, will continue to drive adoption of crypto more broadly.

“It’s one of those things like, I’m betting on the relevance of this. I’m betting on how big and how massive this becomes as a cultural icon,” Contessoto said.