Just when you thought the world of cryptocurrencies couldn’t get any more baffling, a parody coin known as Shiba Inu has hit the mainstream, seeing a completely unbelievable 40,000% price hike from late April to early May of 2021.

So is the coin that describes itself as a “meme-token” a solid investment? Or more to the point; what exactly is this bizarre new coin that’s quickly becoming an internet sensation?

Read on for a brief overview of Shiba Inu, and whether we think investing in this most ridiculous of altcoins is the height of stupidity, or an act of pure genius!

Disclaimer: When we discuss anything to do with the world of cryptocurrencies (and especially the more left-field altcoins), it’s our responsibility to warn you that the markets are extremely volatile, and that we’re absolutely not giving you financial advice. Always do your research before you invest your hard earned cash.

So What Exactly Is Shiba Inu Coin?

Shiba Inu Coin ($SHIB) is a cryptocurrency that features a dog mascot of the Japanese Shiba Inu breed. The coin is an obvious copy (or parody, if you will) of the equally infamous Dogecoin, another crypto featuring the same Japanese dog breed as its mascot.

Confused? Alright, let’s start from the beginning:

The Dogecoin Meme

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last year (and honestly, with the way 2020 turned out, we wouldn’t have blamed you) then you’ll almost certainly have heard of Dogecoin.

Championed by Elon Musk, the parody cryptocurrency with a name and logo inspired by one of the internet’s most famous memes, was created back in 2013 as a joke alternative to Bitcoin. However, after the Tesla and SpaceX CEO began Tweeting about this comedy crypto, it began to explode in popularity, and has seen wild surges in value ever since.

The Meta Joke That Is Shiba Inu

If Dogecoin was conceived as a Bitcoin parody, then Shiba Inu Coin goes one stage further, being created as a “parody of a parody”.

Or as the mascot himself might put it: “Such meta, very humor”.

Shiba Inu launched as recently as August 2020, with a name derived from the breed of Japanese dog that featured in the original meme that inspired Dogecoin.

Is Shiba Inu A Viable Cryptocurrency?

In and of itself, Shiba Inu isn’t all that different from a bunch of other cryptocurrencies, being based on the trusty Ethereum blockchain.

A quick read of the coin’s white paper (known as the Woofpaper!) reads much more like a marketing booklet than a technical manual, so it’s clear that this crypto was not only created from the outset to be a bit of a joke, it’s also intended to be something that people will speculate on, rather than having legitimate functional use as a currency.

Ryoshi, the pseudonym of the anonymous founder of Shiba Inu, created the coin not only as a fun project, but also as an experiment to build a cryptocurrency using a 100% decentralized and spontaneous community.

What Makes Shiba Inu Different To Other Altcoins?

Although Shiba Inu Coin was conceived as both a community building experiment and a parody of Dogecoin, some of the decisions made by its decentralized team of creators points to the cryptocurrency as having the potential to become a usable investment commodity in its own right.

One of the first decisions that the Shiba Inu team made was to give away half of the coins that were available at launch to Vitalik Buterin, a founder of Ethereum. This seems like an odd decision, but the team hoped that this action would prevent large amounts of the currency being held by just a few big investors, which could have impacted its future use as a usable coin.

Secondly, Shiba Inu was created in such a way as to provide its investors with greater earning potential from launch. The Shiba Inu project’s aim was to create an ERC-20 token and supporting ecosystem that was priced so low that anyone could own millions of tokens whilst they were still undervalued.

It’s a plan that seems to be working well so far, with Ryoshi claiming that Shiba Inu is a potential “Dogecoin killer”:

“(Shiba Inu can) …outpace the value of Dogecoin exponentially, without ever crossing the $0.01 value.”

Where Can I Buy Shiba Inu Coin?

Shiba Inu coin is listed with coin exchanges under the symbol SHIB. Binance has recently begun listing the currency for sale, which is a fairly big deal, as the platform is home to a number of well known cryptocurrencies and enjoys high levels of consumer confidence.

Binance is currently warning its users that Shiba Inu is a volatile coin and could be subject to rapid (and significant) changes in value.

The ShibaSwap Exchange

Shibaswap is Shiba Inu’s very own cryptocurrency exchange. Although the service hasn’t launched yet, it’s intended to act as a decentralized exchange where you’ll be able to trade in your other cryptos for Shiba Inu coins.

What’s The Current Value Of Shiba Inu Coin?

Shiba Inu has seen a huge surge in growth during May 2021, rising in value from $0.0000001631 per coin to a peak of around $0.00003640 per coin just ten days later.

The cryptocurrency dropped fairly sharply through the second half of May 2021, but that initial spike represented gains of 1500% in just a few weeks, which created a huge buzz for the coin that’s still largely intact.

The original Dogecoin on the other hand, has crashed in value following Elon Musk’s appearance on the famous US TV show Saturday Night Live.

Should You Invest In Shiba Inu Coin?

The market for so-called “meme coins” is pretty huge right now. Thanks to celebrities like Elon Musk pushing cryptocurrencies like Dogecoin, there’s a sizable pool of amateur investors looking for the next big thing.

It would be tempting to look at the rapid drop in value of Shiba Inu in recent weeks as the end of the line for this coin, but in actual fact, a good deal of that price drop can be attributed to the Etherum co-founder Vitalik Buterin giving away the huge amount of coins that were gifted into his wallet at launch.

The COVID-19 Relief Fund

As we previously mentioned, around half of the initial pool of coins were given to Etherum co-founder Vitalik Buterin on launch. This was a slightly odd move on the part of the developers, who had hoped that Buterin would hold the coins for a long period of time. In a surprise move, Buterin ended up donating 10% of the tokens to an Indian COVID-19 relief fund and burned the remaining 90%, which although incredible news for the charity, is largely the reason for the dramatic losses seen after the coin’s initial surge.

The Future Of Shiba Inu

Shiba Inu has a market cap of over $13 billion at the time of research. The platform has seen an increase in value of 40,000% over a 30 day period. Whilst a good volume of that initial surge in price has now been lost, the coin is still massively more valuable than it was at launch.

One of the most encouraging things about the rise of Shiba Inu is the speed at which it’s been accepted onto the major exchanges like Binance, giving a degree of confidence and stability to the coin. So despite coming with a warning about its likely volatility, we believe that there’s a bright future ahead for this novelty cryptocurrency.

If you’re interested in crypto, and want to learn how you can make money with NFTs, check out our step-by-step guide on how you can get started with making money with NFTs.