TL;DR
Shiba Inu (SHIB) is a dog-themed meme cryptocurrency named after a Japanese dog breed. It was created in 2020 by an anonymous developer named Ryoshi, who designed SHIB to be an alternative to Dogecoin (DOGE) on the Ethereum blockchain.
SHIB is an ERC-20 token with a decentralized exchange called ShibaSwap. The SHIB roadmap and ecosystem also features an NFT art incubator called Shiba Artist Incubator, 10,000 “Shiboshi” NFTs, and an NFT game Shiboshi Game.
Shiba Inu had an initial circulating supply of 1 quadrillion tokens. Ryoshi locked 50% of the token in Uniswap to create liquidity, and sent the other 50% to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin’s wallet. However, Vitalik decided to burn 90% of the coins and donate the remaining 10% to charity.
You can buy and sell SHIB on crypto exchanges like Binance with different trading pairs, such as SHIB/USDT and SHIB/DOGE.
Introduction
For pet-loving crypto traders, 2021 has been particularly exciting with the boom of dog-themed cryptocurrencies. Shiba Inu (SHIB) was one of the rising coins in the market that saw a significant price increase. Dubbed as “Dogecoin killer”, the SHIB coin has become a social media hit. As of November 2021, SHIB is amongst the top cryptocurrencies by market cap. It’s ranked #11 on CoinMarketCap, which puts it close to its competitor, DOGE.
What is Shiba Inu (SHIB)?
Shiba Inu (SHIB) is a meme cryptocurrency running on the Ethereum blockchain. It was created in August 2020 by an anonymous developer named Ryoshi, whose identity is as mysterious as Bitcoin’s creator Satoshi Nakamoto. As the name suggests, SHIB was inspired by the Japanese dog breed Shiba Inu.
SHIB had a total supply of 1 quadrillion. When it was first launched, Ryoshi locked 50% of the total supply in Uniswap to provide liquidity. Uniswap is an automated market maker (AMM) protocol on the Ethereum blockchain and is one of the most successful projects in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space. The other 500 trillion SHIB were sent to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, who decided to burn 90% and donate the remaining to the India COVID-19 relief fund.
The Shiba Inu Ecosystem
To keep up with the dog theme, Shiba Inu uses canine terms in its ecosystem. According to the “WoofPaper” (whitepaper), Shiba Inu is a community-driven project focused on creating a decentralized cryptocurrency.
The SHIB ecosystem consists of a decentralized exchange called ShibaSwap. You can trade SHIB and other cryptocurrencies on ShibaSwap, “dig” into the Puppy Pools to provide liquidity, or “bury” your tokens into smart contracts to earn interest with SHIB and two other ERC-20 tokens, Doge Killer (LEASH) and Bone ShibaSwap (BONE).
LEASH is the second token created by Shiba Inu and it’s also on ShibaSwap. With a circulating supply of 107,646 tokens, LEASH was initially used as a rebase token to track Dogecoin’s price. However, SHIB developers decided to change LEASH to an ERC-20 token. LEASH holders can stake their tokens in the liquidity pool and earn xLEASH as rewards.
BONE is a governance token. It has a supply of 250,000,000 tokens. In the future, it will allow the ShibArmy (a nickname for its community) to vote on upcoming proposals on Doggy DAO.
Shiba Inu is also proposing a non-fungible token (NFT) art incubator called Shiba Artist Incubator. It invites fellow dog-inspired artists around the world to bring their Shiba Inus into the NFT market, featuring artworks like painting, photography, and digital rendering.
In October 2021, the SHIB team launched 10,000 “Shiboshi” NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain and announced an upcoming NFT game called Shiboshi Game. The announcement included a new token-burning mechanism as well. Whenever the Shiboshi holders want to change the name of their NFTs, they need to pay a fee of USD 100 in SHIB. The fees will be burned (i.e., sent to the SHIB burn wallet).
What are meme coins?
Dogecoin and Shiba Inu, along with hundreds of other meme cryptocurrencies, are known as meme coins or meme tokens. For example, Dogecoin and Shiba Inu were inspired by memes of an adorable Shiba Inu dog, while PepeCoin (MEME) was inspired by Pepe the Frog, a popular anthropomorphic frog meme.
Most meme coins are created with limited utility or use cases and are more short-lived than the mainstream cryptocurrencies like bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH). Therefore, a large number of meme coins cannot be traded on major trading platforms. Also, the price of meme coins is generally low due to their huge supply. Even the popular ones like SHIB and DOGE only cost a fraction of a cent.
Meme coins have been taking back seats to the larger market capitalization cryptocurrencies, but they started to rise following the “meme stock” trend of GameStop (GME) and AMC Entertainment (AMC) in 2021. In January 2021, a Reddit group named SatoshiStreetBets considered DOGE the crypto equivalent of GME and joked about pumping its price up. As DOGE price took off, traders have turned their attention to Shiba Inu and other meme coins, looking to achieve gains off the rally. DOGE price was driven up to an all-time high of 73 cents in May 2021, with over 2,000% increase in just five days.
Still, it’s important to keep in mind that cryptocurrency trading and investing carries high financial risk. Meme coins can be super volatile, so you should always DYOR and never invest what you cannot afford to lose.
Why is SHIB so popular?
During the global pandemic in 2020, the cryptocurrency market crashed and then exploded as retail investors flocked to digital assets like bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) to hedge against inflation. As mentioned, the stock market saga has led to the rise of meme coins. Some attribute SHIB’s popularity to social media influence, especially from Tesla CEO Elon Musk. After he publicly joked about Dogecoin on TV in May 2021 and made it slump in price, SHIB and other meme coins had taken advantage of the rising popularity of meme tokens. As of November 2021, SHIB price has increased more than 60,000,000% since January.
One of the reasons for SHIB to stand out from its fellow puppy coins is its Shiboshi NFTs and game. Catching on to the hype of the NFT markets, the 10,000 Shiboshis sold out in under 35 minutes. Shiba Inu launched its own NFTs using the ShibaSwap platform. As the owners name their Shiboshis and trigger the SHIB token burn, along with the development of the Shiboshi NFT game, the popularity of Shiba Inu could continue to grow.
Closing thoughts
Shiba Inu has seen significant gains in 2021. With the launch of the Shiboshi NFTs and the upcoming Shiboshi Game, SHIB’s utility and its ecosystem could potentially exceed its competitor, DOGE. However, you should be cautious and DYOR before investing in cryptocurrencies, especially in meme coins. They can be more volatile than the larger market cap cryptocurrencies, for most of their value is largely based on social media sentiment.