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- Glauber Contessoto of Los Angeles poured his life savings into Dogecoin, according to a profile of the meme currency investor in The New York Times.
- The value of his holdings in the cryptocurrency eventually grew to roughly $2 million.
- Contessoto told the Times he expects Dogecoin's price to keep moving higher and he plans to keep a tight grip on his holdings.
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Glauber Contessoto of Los Angeles decided three months ago to pour his life savings into Dogecoin, taking a big risk that he could either lose it all or turn a profit from the meme cryptocurrency.
According to a profile in the New York Times published Friday, he maxed out his credit cards, borrowed money using a margin trading feature on the Robinhood app, invested about $250,000, and didn't heed warnings from friends that the "joke coin" could crash.
The value of his Dogecoin holdings eventually swelled to $2 million.
Contessoto, who works at a hip-hop media company and drives what the Times described as a beat-up Toyota, has yet to cash out on his gains and expects Dogecoin's price to keep rising. Selling too early would risk missing out on future profit, he said, although he does plan to sell 10% of its stake in 2022 when his earnings will be classified as long-term capital gains and taxed at a lower rate.
"I'm bullish as they come in the Dogecoin community," he told the Times. "If this exceeded my expectations of Dogecoin, and I only hit it in two months, imagine where it'll be in a year."
Dogecoin last week hit an all-time high above $0.74 before Dogecoin enthusiast and Tesla CEO Elon Musk hosted "Saturday Night Live." The price of the meme currency, which was started in 2013 by two programmers spoofing the cryptocurrency craze, slid sharply during the billionaire's TV appearance.
Rounding off this week's moves, Dogecoin leapt 30% during Friday's session, shooting past $0.52 after Musk said he's looking into Tesla accepting Dogecoin as a payment method. This come as the billionaire CEO on Wednesday reversed his decision to allow people to buy Tesla vehicles with bitcoin, sending the cryptocurrency tumbling 15%.
Contessoto started buying stocks on the Robinhood app in 2019 then started looking into Dogecoin following the trading frenzy in shares of GameStop early this year. He told the Times that Dogecoin has the best branding of all cryptocurrencies.
"I feel like eventually we're all going to be buying and selling things with memes, and Dogecoin is going to lead the way," he said.