Just over a year after launching and declaring itself the “dogecoin killer”, Shiba Inu coin has overtaken its more famous rival to become the world’s most valuable meme coin.
The cryptocurrency is one of several new tokens that use the same dog-themed branding as dogecoin – alongside Floki Inu, Doge Dash and Dogelon Mars – but it is the only one to so far challenge dogecoin. Shiba Inu’s astonishing price gains have seen it grow in value by 750,000 per cent since January 2021, pushing its market cap above $40 billion.
Founded by the pseudonymous Ryoshi in August 2020, Shiba Inu first began to gather momentum and mainstream attention during the crypto rally in the first half of 2021. In May, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin donated over $1 billion worth of Shiba Inu (50 trillion SHIB) to the India Covid-Crypto Relief fund, sparking fresh interest and pushing up the price.
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Shiba Inu’s fundamentals differ to dogecoin’s, which its creators claim results in greater utility. Dogecoin is a fork of luckycoin, which uses the same underlying blockchain technology as the bitcoin spin-off litecoin. In contrast, Shiba Inu is an Ethereum-based token, which allows it to function as “an experiment in decentralised spontaneous community building”.
Shiba Inu’s backers also claim it is more community driven than its more famous rival, despite recent data suggesting it is not actually ordinary retail investors that are driving the price surge.
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