Benzinga | Jun 9, 2021 11:02AM EDT

Vitalik Buterin Is A Dogecoin Hodler, Says Meme Crypto Has Proved One Of 'Best Investments'

Vitalik Buterin's $25,000 investment in Dogecoin (DOGE) has resulted in a gain of $4.3 million so far, the Ethereum (ETH) co-creator said in a conversation with Lex Fridman last week.What Happened: Buterin told Fridman that he remembered investing $25,000 in DOGE around 2016, as first noticed by Cointelegraph. He disclosed that he thought to himself at the time "How am I going to explain to my mom that I just invested $25 000 into [Dogecoin]....the only interesting thing about this coin is that there's you know a logo of a dog somewhere."Buterin then said that it ended up being of the "best investments" he's ever made.See Also: How to Buy Ethereum (ETH)The Ethereum (ETH) co-creator reminisced that after Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk started talking about DOGE its value skyrocketed."At the end of 2020, Elon Musk started talking about Dogecoin, and the market cap just shot up to $50 billion [...] It shot up multiple times."Buterin said he was in Singapore during the time of a lockdown when DOGE's value shot up 775% from $0.008 to $0.07 in a single day. "I sold half of the DOGE and I got $4.3 million, donated the profits to GiveDirectly, and a few hours after I did this the price dropped back from around $0.07 to $0.04," said Buterin.Why It Matters: If Buterin has held on to his remaining DOGE holdings, they should be worth nearly $20 million at today's prices.See Also: Why Ethereum Co-Founder Sees Elon Musk's Plan For Scaling Dogecoin As InfeasibleDOGE traded 1.29% lower at $0.32 at press time. Since the year began, the Shiba Inu-themed coin has surged 6,602.28% beating Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum's (ETH) 12.85% and 230.01% returns.BTC traded 1.04% higher at $33,201.56 and ETH traded 1.54% lower at $2,461.92 over 24-hours at press time.Buterin expressed his love for the meme cryptocurrency in the interview and suggested a collaboration between Ethereum and Dogecoin in order to achieve scalability.He remarked that a Doge-to-Ethereum bridge would be "amazing."Read Next: Ethereum Co-Founder Vitalik Buterin Says Cryptocurrencies Are In A 'Bubble'Photo by TechCrunch on Flickr