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Kabosu, the Face of Cryptocurrency Dogecoin, Dies at 18, Owner Says

This picture taken on March 19, 2024 shows Atsuko Sato (L) with her Japanese Shiba Inu dog Kabosu, best known as the logo of cryptocurrency Dogecoin, playing with students at a kindergarten in Narita, Chiba prefecture, east of Tokyo. (AFP)
This picture taken on March 19, 2024 shows Atsuko Sato (L) with her Japanese Shiba Inu dog Kabosu, best known as the logo of cryptocurrency Dogecoin, playing with students at a kindergarten in Narita, Chiba prefecture, east of Tokyo. (AFP)
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Kabosu, the Face of Cryptocurrency Dogecoin, Dies at 18, Owner Says

This picture taken on March 19, 2024 shows Atsuko Sato (L) with her Japanese Shiba Inu dog Kabosu, best known as the logo of cryptocurrency Dogecoin, playing with students at a kindergarten in Narita, Chiba prefecture, east of Tokyo. (AFP)
This picture taken on March 19, 2024 shows Atsuko Sato (L) with her Japanese Shiba Inu dog Kabosu, best known as the logo of cryptocurrency Dogecoin, playing with students at a kindergarten in Narita, Chiba prefecture, east of Tokyo. (AFP)

Kabosu, the Japanese dog that became a global meme and the face of alternative cryptocurrency Dogecoin has died at 18, her owner announced in a blog post on Friday.

The Japanese Shiba Inu passed away while sleeping, her owner Atsuko Sato wrote.

Kabosu became recognizable as the face of Dogecoin, an alternative cryptocurrency that began as a satirical critique of the 2013 crypto frenzy.

But the token jumped in value after Tesla boss Elon Musk, a proponent of cryptocurrencies, began tweeting about it in 2020. Since then the billionaire has repeatedly promoted the coin.

Dogecoin added as much as $4 billion to its market value last year when the billionaire, who bought social media site Twitter in 2022, briefly replaced Twitter's blue bird logo with an image of Kabosu. Musk subsequently renamed Twitter X.

With a market capitalization of around $23.6 billion, Dogecoin is now the ninth biggest cryptocurrency, according to data site Coingecko.com. “The impact this one dog has made across the world is immeasurable,” Dogecoin posted on social media site X on Friday.

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Sony's Profits Rise on Robust Performance for Music, Movies and Games

FILE - A logo of Sony is seen at the headquarters of Sony Corp. on May 10, 2022, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)
FILE - A logo of Sony is seen at the headquarters of Sony Corp. on May 10, 2022, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)
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Sony's Profits Rise on Robust Performance for Music, Movies and Games

FILE - A logo of Sony is seen at the headquarters of Sony Corp. on May 10, 2022, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)
FILE - A logo of Sony is seen at the headquarters of Sony Corp. on May 10, 2022, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)

Japanese technology and entertainment company Sony logged an 18% rise in profit for the fiscal year through March on healthy results at its music and video-game operations.

Tokyo-based Sony Corp. said Wednesday that its annual profit totaled 1.14 trillion yen ($7.8 billion), up from 970.6 billion yen in the previous fiscal year, The Associated Press reported.

Annual sales were virtually unchanged, inching down to 12.957 trillion yen ($88 billion) from 13.020 trillion yen.

One area that lagged among Sony’s sprawling businesses was the financial segment, where revenue stalled. But its film division and its imaging and sensor solutions segment did well.

Among the movies that fared positively at the box office for the fiscal year through March were “Venom: The Last Dance,” featuring the Marvel Comics superhero, and “Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” an action comedy, in which Will Smith and Martin Lawrence come back in their popular cop roles, the fourth installment in the series.

Sony, which makes the PlayStation console and game software played on that machine, also marked healthy results in the gaming business.

Its music operations, which also held up, include recordings, streaming services and music for games. The top-selling recorded music projects for the latest fiscal year globally was SZA’s “SOS Deluxe: LANA,” followed by Beyonce, Future & Metro Boomin and Travis Scott.

For the Japan music business, the top-seller was Kenshi Yonezu’s “Lost Corner” album, followed by offerings from Stray Kids and Six Tones.

For the January-March quarter, Sony posted a 197.7 billion yen ($1.3 billion) profit, up 5% from 189 billion yen the same quarter in the previous fiscal year. Sales were 2.6 trillion yen ($17.7 billion), down 24% from 3.48 trillion yen.

Sony is forecasting a nearly 13% drop in profit for the fiscal year through March 2026, to 930 billion yen ($6.3 billion), on 11.7 trillion yen ($80 billion) sales, down 2.9% on-year.

Sony officials are set to brief reporters on the latest company strategy for growth later in the day. Sony stocks lost 3% in Tokyo morning trading.