Move over Dogecoin. Another meme token is here.
Shiba Inu, a coin that has christened itself a “Dogecoin killer”, has surged by 28% and reached a record high of $0.00005 in one day. Don’t let that pilfering price fool you, however. According to CoinGecko, a crypto data firm, the coin has a valuation of more than $38 billion. it has already surpassed Dogecoin to become the ninth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. With a market cap of $32.2 billion and a price of $0.24 per pop, Dogecoin is ranked 11th by market capitalization, according to CoinGecko.
Those rankings are flipped according to data from Coinmarketcap, another crypto data site. Shiba Inu is the 11th-largest cryptocurrency with a market capitalization of $29.3 billion and Dogecoin is a place above it with a market cap of $32.1 billion. All figures mentioned above should be marked with an asterisk since much of the cryptocurrency economy is mired in fake transaction volumes and supposed investments by anonymous whales.
What is Shiba Inu?
Shiba Inu was launched in August 2020 as a token on Ethereum’s blockchain. The woofpaper (whitepaper, for the uninitiated) describes the cryptocurrency as “an experiment in decentralized spontaneous community building.” If your head is reeling after that description, there’s more. The paper mentions “an untamed wilderness of our future” and describes community projects as “a way to practice the radical acceptance of others.” The token was created by Ryoshi, an anonymous person (Et tu, Nakamoto?), and has a total supply of one quadrillion. Just like Dogecoin, there are no documented use cases for Shiba Inu.
Free giveaways, also known as airdrops, were common after Bitcoin’s launch. The Shiba Inu creator sent half of the total supply to Vitalik Buterin, the cofounder of Ethereum. “There is no greatness without a vulnerable point and as long as VB doesn’t rug (?) us, then SHIBA will grow and survive,” the creator states in the woofpaper. Buterin seems to have done the sensible thing and destroyed some of his Shiba Inu holdings and donated the rest to charity efforts, including India’s Covid-relief efforts.
Why Did the Price of Shiba Inu Jump?
Since its launch, Shiba Inu has racked up impressive gains. It is already listed at most well-known cryptocurrency exchanges, including Binance and Coinbase. Its price skyrocketed by 600% in the last couple of weeks.
Coindesk reports that blockchain addresses labeled ‘smart money’ (what else?) are fueling the token’s rally. In the last seven days, investors have snapped up $160 million worth of Shiba Inu tokens. Another story claims that a $11.5 million purchase from an Ethereum whale is responsible for the uptick in Shiba Inu’s price. The whale, who obviously thinks there is some value to the token, has amassed 293 billion SHIB tokens worth $16.5 million. Meanwhile, a change.org petition has already garnered more than 500,000 signatures to have the token listed on Robinhood’s trading platform. Dogecoin is already listed on Robinhood.