Shiba Inu (SHIB) is a cryptocurrency token that strives to be an Ethereum based alternative to Dogecoin (DOGE), a popular memecoin. Shiba Inu even refers to itself as the “Dogecoin Killer”. Because it Shiba Inu runs on Ethereum, it can run smart contracts whereas Dogecoin cannot, this is a key differentiator between the two cryptocurrencies. The SHIB token can support NFT projects and currently runs a decentralized exchange named “Shibaswap” among other smart contracts.
What are the origins of Shiba Inu?
The SHIB token was originally launched by an anonymous founder named “Ryoshi”. The launch occurred in August 2020 with a supply of 1 quadrillion SHIB tokens. Like Dogecoin (DOGE) it is based on a meme of a dog, in this case a Shiba Inu dog. Where Bitcoin is designed to be scarce, Shiba Inu or SHIB was designed to be abundant with supply of one quadrillion coins. Shiba Inu’s white paper which they aptly call a “woofpaper” call it a community-based-cryptocurrency project, meaning the owners or “ShibArmy” make the decisions for its development and growth. This is not a unique concept in cryptocurrencies as many coins implement this strategy.
Shiba Inu’s History
Shiba Inu first grabbed the spotlight, in May 2021 when its creator sent half of all the supply of SHIB to Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder and face of Ethereum. Many crypto experts considered this to be a publicity stunt in order to garner attention for the new coin. Vitalik Buterin then decided to destroy or (burn) 90% of the tokens and donated the other 10%. Since the burning of 50% of the SHIB token it now has a circulating supply of 549 trillion tokens.
Shiba Inu coin then launched a decentralized exchange named “ShibaSwap” in the summer of 2021. It also created a crypto game project with the previous VP of technology at Activision, David Folk. The game is dubbed a play to earn Non-Fungible Token (NFT) game.
Shiba Inu may have gained most of its notoriety due to its historic price rise in 2021. Although many critics have referred to SHIB as a pump-and-dump scheme coin with little to no value or use case, many memecoin investors chasing the price rises of the next dogecoin (which had its own historic price increases) bought into Shiba Inu and were rewarded handsomely. SHIB started off in 2021 at a price of $0.000000000119 but by October 2021 SHIB reached a price of over $0.0000884, that is a 74,000000% increase in 10 months time, making many investors extremely happy and stealing the crypto news headlines for most of the year. It then encountered a severe reversal in price of over 70% as many experts argue that the rise was based on hysteria and uninformed retail purchasing based on hype rather then the SHIB tokens fundamentals and use-cases.
How to purchase and use Shiba Inu
Shiba Inu is considered a risky investment and many critics would argue that it already has seen its biggest price moves, however it has paid off well for early investors and remains very popular in the crypto community. If you were looking to purchase the SHIB token most of the major crypto exchanges will offer the coin, including Coinbase, Gemini, Binance, FTX and Crypto.com.
Since its epic rise to fame many companies now accept Shiba Inu as payment including Tesla, Gamestop, Nordstrom, AMC Theaters, Petco, Bed Bath and Beyond and Lowes home improvement company. Shibaswap allows users to swap out one cryptocurrency coin for another. It also offers its users an NFT marketplace to buy and sell NFTs. The Shiba Inu coin’s ecosystem continues to grow and time will tell if this token has staying power or if it dwindle away slowly.