From $25,000 to $10 million: Vitalik says he was an early winner in Dogecoin In an interview with Silicon Valley 101, Vitalik recounted his history with Dogecoin. A group of developers forked Litecoin’s code to create a coin that “did nothing,” with its only selling point being a cute dog—and it went viral across the internet. In 2016, Vitalik spent $25,000 to buy Dogecoin, which later rose to over $10 million; he himself admitted he was a relatively successful early investor. Source: Silicon Valley 101