The $HOTDOG mascot, a cartoon hot dog with white gloves, standing behind a warehouse food court counter and holding up a loaded hot dog. The sign above him reads: Food court, hot dog & soda, $1.50.

LiveRobinhood Chain · Paired with $COST

Still $1.50. Still all beef.
The Costco hot dog, now on-chain.

CA 0x45443A4a7b58ab26A4B4D72616cf36D5aAE7188C

Aisle 1The thesis

One of these is being run responsibly.

Since 1985 the United States has borrowed roughly another $38 trillion. Over the same forty-one years, the Costco food court has raised the price of a hot dog and a soda by exactly $0.00.

… hot dogs the national debt would buy, at $1.50 each Item 1985-001
… of federal debt per American, about … hot dogs each Item 1985-002
… what $1.50 from 1985 is worth today. The hot dog didn't get the memo. Item 1985-003
… years of Costco selling combos at its record pace (245 million a year) to cover the debt Item 1985-004

Growth since 1985, indexed

1985 = 100. U.S. total public debt outstanding vs. the Costco hot dog + soda combo.

  • National debt
  • Hot dog + soda
View the data as a table
U.S. total public debt outstanding at fiscal year-end (trillions of USD) vs. Costco hot dog + soda price, 1985 to 2026.
YearNational debt ($T)Debt index (1985 = 100)Hot dog + soda

Aisle 2The lore

He's been to space. He's run the city. He has never raised his price.

In 1985, Costco put a hot dog and a soda on the menu for $1.50. The Cold War ended. The internet happened. Three recessions, one pandemic and roughly thirty-eight trillion dollars of new federal debt later, it still costs $1.50. It is, by some distance, the most stable thing in America. $HOTDOG is the token for people who noticed.

The $HOTDOG mascot standing on the surface of the Moon, planting a flag that reads $1.50 Territory, with Earth rising behind him.
Destination: the Moon. Flag planted. Price unchanged.
The $HOTDOG mascot sitting at the Resolute desk in the Oval Office, stamping the word Cancelled across a document titled $2.00 Hotdog Proposal. More cancelled copies are scattered across the desk.
Run responsibly. Every proposal to raise it: cancelled.
The $HOTDOG mascot wearing a jeweller's loupe at a workshop bench, assembling a small hot dog figure out of toy building bricks, its blueprint pinned to the wall behind him.
Built different. Brick by brick, to the blueprint.

On the record

Forty-one years of Costco executives being asked the same question.

  1. 2009
    “That I'm dead.”

    Jim Sinegal, co-founder, asked what it would mean if the price ever went up

  2. 2018
    “If you raise the effing hot dog, I will kill you. Figure it out.”

    Jim Sinegal to CEO Craig Jelinek, as Jelinek tells it

  3. 2022
    “Hold the price on the hot dog and the soda a little longer, forever.”

    Richard Galanti, CFO, on an earnings call

  4. 2024
    “The $1.50 hot dog price is safe.”

    Gary Millerchip, CFO, on his first earnings call

  5. 2026
    “The hot dog price will not change as long as I'm around.”

    Ron Vachris, CEO

Aisle 3Membership

Membership is free. Activation takes four steps.

$HOTDOG trades on Robinhood Chain, Robinhood's Ethereum Layer 2, live since July 2026. If you've used any EVM wallet before, you already know how this goes.

Card on file since 1985. No annual fee. Cashback: 0%. Hot dog: $1.50.

CA 0x45443A4a7b58ab26A4B4D72616cf36D5aAE7188C

Only ever trade the contract address shown on this page and on @HOTDOGonRH. Anything else is a different sausage.

Activate your membership

  1. Get a wallet that knows Robinhood Chain

    Robinhood Wallet has it built in. MetaMask, Rabby and Trust Wallet work too: add the network in one click (chain ID 4663; gas is paid in ETH).

  2. Get ETH onto Robinhood Chain

    In the Robinhood app, send ETH to your wallet and choose the Robinhood Chain network. Or bridge from Ethereum, Arbitrum or Base. Relay and Across take seconds; the canonical Arbitrum bridge takes about ten minutes. Keep a little ETH for gas.

  3. Open Uniswap and paste the contract

    $HOTDOG lives in a Uniswap v3 pool on Robinhood Chain. Paste the contract address as the token you're buying (never search by name) and check it matches this page character for character.

  4. Swap into $HOTDOG

    The pool is $HOTDOG / COST (yes, tokenized Costco stock) and Uniswap routes from ETH through COST for you. Set a sensible slippage, confirm in your wallet, and you're in. Then hold it like Costco holds the price.

Authorized signature the glizzy

Not valid as payment for hot dogs. By swapping you agree to hold it like Costco holds the price. Membership cannot be revoked, because nobody is in charge.

Aisle 4The facts

Everything on the receipt.

Fixed supply. No owner. No transfer tax. Liquidity locked forever. And it's paired with COST, Robinhood's tokenized Costco stock. Yes, really. Itemised below, the way Costco would do it.

$HOTDOG
ROBINHOOD CHAIN  ·  WHSE #1985
MEMBER: EVERYONE
TICKER
$HOTDOG
NETWORK
ROBINHOOD CHAIN
STANDARD
ERC-20
LAUNCHED
…
DEX
…
PAIR
…
TOTAL SUPPLY
…
TRANSFER TAX
…
LP STATUS
…
CONTRACT OWNER
…
HOT DOG + SODA
$1.50
PRICE CHANGE SINCE 1985 $0.00
CONTRACT ADDRESS 0x45443A4a7b58ab26A4B4D72616cf36D5aAE7188C

*** THANK YOU. RUN RESPONSIBLY ***

Aisle 6The community

Join the cookout.

Memes, market updates and the occasional reminder that the price of a hot dog has not moved. The food court is open.