Shiba Inu: the Dogecoin killer
The symbol of the SHIB meme coin is a cute red-haired dog of the eponymous dog breed. SHIB occupied the 13th position in the global cryptocurrency ranking as of February 2023. A sign of misfortune?
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SHIB devs and its features
Shiba Inu burst onto the cryptocurrency scene in the summer of 2020, creating a buzz as the “Dogecoin killer.” The project's creator(s) go by the pseudonym Ryoshi, which means “fisherman” in Japanese – a nod to the breed's Japanese roots.
“I am just some guy of no consequence tapping at a keyboard and I am replaceable,” Ryoshi once commented on attempts by the crypto enthusiasts to unravel his identity.
It is believed that the mysterious Ryoshi, aka the “fisherman,” created SHIB as a social experiment to see if he could lure in a decentralized community of followers. And the project has amassed a massive following, with hundreds of thousands of members. The project's woof paper (a playful riff on the traditional white paper) outlines the community's commitment to promote Shiba Inu.
The SHIB token was created using the popular ERC-20 standard on the Ethereum blockchain. In a bid to provide further value for SHIB holders, the project also launched its own decentralized exchange called ShibaSwap. It allows users to trade SHIB and other cryptocurrencies without relying on intermediaries.
Alleged investor and Shiba Inu tokenomics
At the start of the project, Ryoshi made a commitment to launch Shiba Inu without spending any money upfront. Instead, they intended to purchase their SHIB tokens after the official launch of the coin and cut the cost of further promotion of Shiba Inu to zero.
Those promises were fulfilled in an ingenious way. To provide liquidity for the ETH-SHIB trading pair on decentralized exchange Uniswap, some “very influential individual” donated 10 ETH to Ryoshi.
The total supply of SHIB tokens was a massive 1 quadrillion (that's 15 zeros!). Half of these tokens were sent to Uniswap. The remaining 500 trillion SHIB, worth $1.2 billion, were given to Vitalik Buterin. In their marketing, SHIB describes Buterin as a friend of the project.
SHIB exchange rate dynamics in 2020-2023
Source: coinbase
The token's popularity skyrocketed a year after its launch due to its dog-themed branding, the activity of the Shiba Inu community, and retail investors' speculation. Ironically, Elon Musk's tweets in support of Dogecoin, SHIB's competitor, have generally had a positive effect on SHIB's market position as well.
In May 2021, Buterin burnt 410 trillion SHIB valued at over $6.5 billion, and promised to donate the remaining 10% to charity. This move caused Shiba Inu to surge by 35% in just two hours. Later, Buterin donated over 50 trillion SHIB (worth approximately $1 billion at the time) to the COVID-Crypto Relief Fund in India.
- SHIB's circulating supply is around 549 trillion coins.
- As of the third decade of February 2023, the price of SHIB was approximately $0.00001338.
- The market cap is above $7.3 billion.
- The number of wallets exceeds 1.3 million.
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