10-year-old Dogecoin wallet sold doge tokens too early, missed out on more than a million dollars in profit

Markets are notable for their lack of predictability. It is nearly impossible to time the top and bottom of different trends, and it is difficult to simply pull a profit. 

However, some traders not only miss out on profits, but they also miss out on some of the largest market moves for an asset by selling at inopportune times. Benzinga reports on one Dogecoin (DOGE) investor who is a prime example.

One of the largest DOGE wallets over the past decade finally sold its tokens in late 2023. The sale came just before one of the larger DOGE price runs in the past several years. The wallet first began acquiring DOGE tokens in late 2013, 21 days after the tokens launched. The initial investment of $146.87 netted the wallet over 274,000 DOGE tokens. Throughout 2014, the wallet continued to acquire tokens, making numerous investments ranging from a few cents to a few hundred dollars. The wallet invested a total of around $5,000 in DOGE throughout 2013 and 2014. The wallet's owner made a final investment of $195.61 in early 2015 before stopping activity until 2023.

During the time between 2015 and 2023, the price of DOGE skyrocketed. This primarily occurred in 2021, when the token made waves on social media and received notable attention from Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk. This helped the token go from less than 1/100 of a cent to a high of nearly 75 cents, helping the wallet's owner amass a fortune. At its peak, the roughly $5,000 investment in DOGE was worth over $4 million, but the wallet's owner did not sell it at that time.

DOGE's price fell considerably throughout 2022 and 2023, losing over 90% of its value. This was largely because of the overall crypto bear market, which saw most tokens lose 50% or more of their value within the year. 

Just as DOGE began to recover, the wallet's owner sold all of the tokens on Oct. 28, 2023. The sale was across three transactions, generating proceeds of around $370,000, or 5.39 million DOGE. 

Soon after the sale, meme coins, and DOGE in particular began to take off. DOGE is up more than 60% year to date and up more than 120% since the date of the sale. At its peak in 2024, the price of DOGE went as high as 23 cents — more than 235% higher than the average price of 68 cents the tokens sold for. 

If the wallet had held the tokens until now, it would have seen an additional $450,000 in gains. If it had sold at its peak in 2024, it would have seen a total gain of nearly $900,000 and could have sold the position for proceeds of $1.25 million.