TL;DR: In 2014, Jon bought 25,000 Dogecoins for $20. In 2025, they were worth over $6K. Too bad he forgot his wallet password—and couldn’t recover it.
It All Started When
Back in 2014, when Dogecoin was still the meme coin of the internet and “much wow” was a legitimate financial analysis, Jon—a regular guy with a sense of humor and a little extra pocket change—decided to jump on the joke.
He wasn’t a crypto bro or a blockchain enthusiast. He wasn’t even trying to make money. He just thought it was hilarious that you could mine a Shiba Inu-themed coin, and for about $20, he scooped up 25,000 Dogecoins.
Jon tucked his newly minted stash into a software wallet, set a password (which he claims “was strong but memorable”), and promptly forgot about it. After all, he had invested in a meme, not a financial strategy.
Fast-forward to 2021, the year Dogecoin shocked the world. With Elon Musk memes, SNL cameos, and Reddit-fueled hype, Doge’s price rocketed from fractions of a penny to over $0.70 at its peak.
Jon’s $20 joke? Now worth over $6500.
And Then
Excited and mildly panicked, Jon dug through old emails, hard drives, and notes trying to find the wallet—and he did! The Dogecoin wallet was still intact, still holding his precious 25,000 DOGE.
There was just one small problem:
Jon couldn’t remember the password.
What followed was every crypto HODLer’s nightmare.
He tried everything he could think of: old passwords, pet names, song lyrics, keyboard mashing patterns, birthdays, obscure movie quotes. Nada.
Eventually, he sought help from a renowned hacker—someone who had helped recover locked wallets in the past. They attempted everything short of summoning the Dogefather himself. But due to the limitations of the wallet encryption software and a lack of memory clues from Jon, every avenue hit a wall.
After weeks of attempts and countless failed password combinations, the hacker gave the verdict:
“It’s lost unless you remember something new.”
The Facepalm
Crypto Twitter had no chill. Especially when was hitting all time highs and Elon was tweeting about DOGE
“Imagine turning $20 into $17K and then losing it to your own brain.” — @dogeledger
Reddit piled on with the usual grace:
- “Jon took HODL to a whole new level—HODLing from himself.”
- “He was the meme. He became the meme.”
- “The real Dogecoin treasure was the password we forgot along the way.”
Even Jon had to laugh—kind of. In interviews, he admitted he never expected Dogecoin to be worth anything, and at the time, the idea of a backup system felt ridiculous. “It was just for the meme,” he said.
Famous last words.
Does This Deserve the HODLaward?
👍 Click to vote: Did Jon turn meme magic into meme misery?
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