Ever wondered what happens when you combine an adorable dog with an even more adorable hat? Well, in the wild world of crypto, you get a meme coin sensation, of course!

It’s no secret that meme coin enthusiasts are big dog lovers, and when a picture surfaced of a Shiba Inu rocking a charming pink knitted hat, it wasn’t just cute—it was internet gold. The image went absolutely viral, capturing the crypto community’s imagination and, naturally, birthing its very own Solana-based meme coin: Dogwifhat (WIF).

Staying true to the "degen" spirit of meme coins, WIF openly admits to being "literally just a dog wif a hat," as stated on its official website. Forget groundbreaking tech or real-world applications—WIF is all about the meme. And yet, despite its humble origins, Dogwifhat quickly skyrocketed to become one of the top meme coins by market capitalization after exploding onto the scene in November 2023. Of course, like any good meme coin, its value has seen its share of wild ups and downs.

What is WIF?

Dogwifhat (WIF), in essence, is a meme coin built on the Solana blockchain. Its community is known for their rallying cry: “the hat stays on,” a fun way to show their unwavering support. The coin’s popularity surged thanks to fervent backing from the crypto community, championed by influential figures like Ansem, who garnered a significant following while advocating for the token.

And that’s really the whole story! No complex "barkitecture" or hidden agenda here. Just like they say, it’s simply a dog… with a hat.

WIF’s rise and fall

Dogwifhat officially entered the crypto scene in November 2023, announced via a tweet from its official account. Fast forward to March 31st, and WIF reached an incredible all-time high of $4.83, boasting a market cap of $4.58 billion.

For those brave early adopters who "HODLed" through the initial month, the reward was well worth the wait, as they witnessed substantial gains in the weeks that followed.

December 2023 was a rollercoaster, with the coin experiencing a mind-blowing 2,000x price surge within a single month! One lucky (or perhaps savvy) trader turned a mere $300 investment in WIF, made on launch day, into a staggering $300,000. Meanwhile, another investor claims to have ridden the WIF wave to millionaire status in the same timeframe.

“It’s just a dog wearing a hat, and honestly, every time I saw the meme, it just made me laugh,” the WIF millionaire tweeted, perfectly capturing the coin’s simple, meme-driven appeal. “That’s really all there is to it.”

However, despite managing to avoid the typical meme coin "burnout," WIF has definitely shown significant price swings throughout its short life.

Remarkably, in November 2024, it nearly clawed its way back to its peak, reaching $4.19 and a market cap of $4.2 billion. But then, by March 2025, the rug seemed to be pulled a bit, as the token plummeted to around $0.43—a dramatic 91% drop from its all-time high.

Who is the dog wif the hat?

The star of the meme, the dog "wif hat," is actually named Achi (formerly known as Chi-Chi). She’s a Shiba Inu, a dog breed that’s already pretty popular in the crypto world, given that another Shiba Inu is the face of the OG meme coin, Dogecoin.

Achi is around six years old now, and the now-famous photo was taken just two months after she was born on September 15, 2018.

Currently, Achi lives in South Korea with her owners, who, get this, actually hand-knitted that iconic hat themselves! Initially, her owners were pretty thrilled about their dog’s sudden fame and even took to Instagram to announce an NFT auction for the original, legendary photo of Achi.

But, things got a little hairy when the Solana community discovered the NFT was being created on the Ethereum blockchain, and not Solana—the very blockchain that birthed the meme coin! This happened after Achi’s owners had tried to team up with a Solana developer, even launching an ACHI token. Unfortunately, in a classic crypto twist, the owners were quickly rug-pulled – it’s a dog-eat-dog world out there! After this rough patch, they turned to an Ethereum-based online community for help. Still, the Solana crowd wasn’t happy, and the complaints kept coming.

“Please don’t insult [Achi] and us,” the owners pleaded in a pinned comment on their Instagram post, trying to quiet the discontent. “You have no reason to blame us. Please cheer for us.”

Despite the drama, on March 18th, the iconic photo of Achi ultimately sold for 1,210.759 ETH, which was around $4.27 million at that time).

If you’re craving more adorable Achi content, you can always check out her owner’s Instagram account, which chronicles her life over the past six years.

Who created the Dogwifhat meme?

While we now know the dog "wif the hat" is Achi, the meme itself actually started with Issa, a professional Fortnite player and streamer. He used the picture as his Twitter profile picture back in 2019. That’s when a user cleverly replied with the now-iconic phrase, “Dogwifhat.”

Soon, more folks in the Fortnite world started changing their own profile pictures to the same adorable dog photo. Issa himself even tweeted, "dogwifhat taking over," as the meme began to spread. Before long, players, streamers, and even organizations from other esports scenes like Rocket League jumped on the bandwagon.

The meme then evolved further, with people playfully adding the dog’s hat to images of esports teams, popular "hypebeast" brands, and other memes. This is also when YouTuber Keemstar hopped on the trend, setting his own Twitter profile picture to the dog wearing a hat – but with his logo added, of course.

Issa, claiming his role as the originator of the dogwifhat meme, even sold a figurine of Achi through YouTooz. Despite this, Issa maintains that he has no connection to the Solana meme coin and holds no "bad blood" towards the project itself.

In a bit of a twist, Issa launched his own dogwifhat token, but on Ethereum. It hasn’t seen nearly the same level of success as its Solana-based counterpart. Meanwhile, the creators of the Solana WIF token remain completely anonymous, with no public information about who they are.

Dog wif Sphere?

Back in February 2024, a campaign called “Sphere Wif Hat” kicked off, aiming to raise $650,000 to get the beanie-wearing pup’s image displayed on the largest screen in the world: the Sphere in Las Vegas. By mid-March, they hit their goal. However, as of March 2025, the dog (and that iconic hat) are still waiting for their Sphere debut.

Throughout 2024, project fans started getting a bit concerned, noticing that the five organizers of the fundraiser (including the pseudonymous WIF enthusiast Ansem) had gone radio silent about the Sphere plans. By June, one of the organizers, Mihiri, reassured the community, promising that funds would be returned if the Sphere campaign fell through.

Those funds are currently held in a multi-sig wallet—a type of crypto wallet requiring multiple approvals for transactions. As of right now, the wallet contains nearly $698,000 in USDC stablecoin, along with about $842 worth of Solana (SOL), and a smattering of other meme coins.

Then, on January 29th, Dogwifhat’s official Twitter account posted a tweet saying, “Officially confirmed. Viva hat vegas,” alongside a picture of their furry mascot playfully wearing the Sphere as a hat and holding a phone displaying "Q1 2025." Many took this as a sign that the long-awaited Sphere appearance was finally happening. But, strangely, the tweet was quickly deleted and then reposted, this time without the "officially confirmed" part. When questioned, the Dogwifhat account replied, promising "Dates as soon as we are allowed to share," adding the ever-reassuring, "Hat stays on.”

However, just two days later, a Sphere representative threw cold water on the hype, telling Decrypt directly that there was no deal to advertise Dogwifhat on their iconic venue – and actually, never had been.

“We have never had a deal with Dogwifhat, and our agency at the time only had one very preliminary conversation early last year,” the Sphere spokesperson explained. “There was and is no plan for Dogwifhat to appear on the Exosphere, and we are distressed they are using our name for fraudulent purposes.”

In response, the meme coin’s official account tweeted that they were still in "ongoing negotiations with various parties to collaborate on the Sphere ad placement," clarifying that “since the Wif team is not a corporate entity, the organizers are collaborating WITH an established brand to execute this advertisement.”

However, the Sphere representative doubled down, clarifying to Decrypt that “there was and is no plan” for Dogwifhat to grace their venue, adding, “At this time, Sphere only accepts advertising from exchanges and [about] Bitcoin.”

While the fundraiser organizers are still holding onto the hope that the Dogwifhat Sphere ad will eventually happen, users of the on-chain prediction market MYRIAD (launched by Decrypt’s parent company DASTAN) are largely skeptical. Nearly 96% of them are betting that it won’t happen by the end of Q1 2025. Looks like the hat might have to stay off the Sphere, for now at least!