The memecoin market has become one of the booming sectors in the crypto industry. Despite being created as a joke, these assets have garnered massive engagement from investors across the globe.
Among the leading memecoin projects is the dog-themed project – Shiba Inu. It is a decentralized, community-driven memecoin project that has soared to being the second-largest memecoin, thanks to its market cap worth billions of dollars.
Shiba Inu was launched as a rival memecoin project to Dogecoin, a memecoin backed by Elon Musk. Today, the memecoin project has captured a cult-like following as its ecosystem has significantly grown into one of the biggest cryptocurrencies.
This beginner’s guide has been carefully prepared to dissect the entire Shiba Inu ecosystem. It also highlights ways to invest in the memecoin project and discusses its efficacy as an investment asset.
Shiba Inu Explained
Launched in August 2020, Shiba Inu emerged as one of the first crypto projects built around a dog-focused narrative. Like Dogecoin, Shiba Inu’s creation is inspired by a 2013 meme about a native Japanese dog breed using the same name. The similarities between these two cryptocurrencies have moved proponents to describe Shiba Inu as a “Dogecoin killer”.
Shiba Inu was launched in response to the need for a decentralized crypto project owned by no central authority with no initial funding. A community of users leads the dog-themed crypto project collectively called the SHIB Army. The memecoin project describes itself as a 100% community-led project, according to its Woof paper (white paper).
Like most large-cap memecoin projects, Shiba Inu is built on the Ethereum network. Despite starting as a small crypto project, Shiba Inu has expanded its ecosystem to include several crypto initiatives. They include:
SHIB
SHIB is the foundational ERC-20 cryptocurrency for the Shiba Inu ecosystem. It is a deflationary token, implying that the supply is reduced over time to bolster its value. It has a total supply of one quadrillion tokens. 50% of its supply has been locked in Uniswap for liquidity purposes. The latter half of its supply was sent to the Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin as a marketing ploy to convince investors that he was involved in the memecoin project. Concerning this move, SHIB’s creator wrote in the Woof paper:
“We sent over 50% of the TOTAL supply to Vitalik. There is no greatness without a vulnerable point and as long as [Vitalik Buterin] doesn’t rug us, then SHIBA will grow and survive.”
The Ethereum founder donated part of the tokens to the programming platform Gitcoin and a COVID-19 relief fund in May 2021. Buterin subsequently burned a large chunk of the dog-themed cryptocurrency.
There are 1,395,081 SHIB holders, according to on-chain data from the blockchain explorer, Etherscan. It indicates that the project has captured several investors’ interest.
LEASH
Doge Killer (LEASH) is the second crypto token within the Shiba Inu ecosystem. It was launched in April 2021. Its creator originally designed it as a rebase token pegged to Dogecoin’s value. It implies that the token has a flexible supply and price that adjusts periodically to match an underlying asset. With this algorithm, token holders would frequently see their holdings drop while the value remains intact.
However, the project’s team eventually decided to “unleash the potential” by downsizing the token’s supply to 107,646. The reduced supply sparked a price surge for the token to over $4,500 in June 2021. The token has since dropped to around $500.
BONE
BONE is a governance token launched in July 2021 for the ShibaSwap decentralized community. It implies that holding the BONE token enables a user to partake in voting processes involving proposals within the Shiba Inu ecosystem. Like other ecosystem tokens, BONE uses the ERC-20 token standard on the Ethereum network. The token has a total supply of 250 million.
SHI Stablecoin
SHI is a Shiba Inu-branded stablecoin pegged 1:1 to the United States dollar. Such dollar-pegged cryptocurrencies are designed to protect investors from volatilities common to cryptocurrencies. TREAT token, another ecosystem token, will help to provide liquidity for the stablecoin. Although announced in July 2022 by the project’s developers, SHI stablecoin has yet to be launched.
TREAT
TREAT is the fifth crypto token added to the Shiba Inu ecosystem. According to its official website, the token will serve as liquidity to the SHI stablecoin. It adds that TREAT will replace BONE as the reward token for users of the ShibaSwap exchange. Players of the Shiba Inu-branded cards battle game, Shiba Eternity, will also receive TREAT as in-game rewards. As of April 10, 2024, TREAT has yet to be launched.
ShibaSwap
ShibaSwap is a decentralized exchange (DEX) within the Shiba Inu ecosystem. Investors provide liquidity and swap different tokens on the platform. Users can also bury (stake) or dig tokens to accrue rewards. The platform also enables the trading of Shiboshi NFTs.
ShibaSwap has a community called the Doggy DAO, a decentralized autonomous organization where voting processes occur. ShibaSwap was forked from SushiSwap, a protocol forked from Uniswap. As of April 10, 2024, the DEX held a total value locked of $29.87 million.
Shibarium
Shibarium is a layer-2 blockchain launched on the Ethereum mainnet for the Shiba Inu ecosystem. The L2 network aims to solve the scalability issue faced by Ethereum, enabling faster transactions at lower costs. It utilizes the proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism like its underlying blockchain. With this feature, Shibarium allows users to become validators, enabling them to confirm transactions and bolster the network’s security.
On-chain data shows that the layer-2 scaling solution has processed over 411.7 million transactions since its inception.
Since its mainnet launch in August 2023, Shibarium has 12 network validators, according to the project’s official website. The number of validators is small compared to the hundreds of thousands of validators on the Ethereum network.
Shib: The Metaverse
Shib: The Metaverse is a metaverse platform within the Shiba Inu ecosystem. Metaverses combine virtual reality, augmented reality, gaming, blockchain, and artificial intelligence. Using digital characters, users can virtually interact with one another.
The Shiba Inu-branded metaverse allows users to purchase 100,595 virtual lands to build “digital real estate empires.” Game developers can also integrate their games into the metaverse. Business owners and content creators are also welcome to expand their terrain into the digital realm.
Shib: The Metaverse is housed on the layer-2 Shibarium network. LEASH gives early access to land sales within the metaverse.
Shiboshi NFT
Shiboshi is a non-fungible token (NFT) collection of 10,000 Shiba Inu-structured digital collectibles. These NFTs are launched on the Ethereum network. The tokens have varying traits, such as Laser Eyes and Party Hat. The traits of these NFTs unlock unique capabilities in the upcoming Shiboshi game. Additionally, each NFT will help to boost the overall gaming experience.
Participants use LEASH tokens to partake in the minting process. Investors can purchase and trade the Shiboshi NFT on ShibaSwap.
Who Created Shiba Inu?
Shiba Inu was created by the pseudonymous Ryoshi, who could be an individual or a group name. After creating the dog-themed memecoin project, the founder urged the SHIB Army and the public to refrain from uncovering their identity. Ryoshi stated they are “a nobody” and “not important.”
This did not stop crypto users from investigating Ryoshi’s identity. For example, in March 2023, Coinbase’s director Conor Grogan labelled the infamous FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried as the brain behind the Shiba Inu project. The speculation sprung from an Alameda Research address affiliated with Ryoshi’s known wallet address.
In May 2021, Ryoshi became dormant on social platforms like X (formerly Twitter) after leading the project for nearly a year. The founder deleted tweets and Medium posts and disappeared from the crypto industry in May 2022. Ryoshi also changed their X profile picture to Buddhist disciple Jetsun Milarepa. The sudden exit of the Shiba Inu founder sparked a wave of fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) among community members. These concerns were exacerbated by the crash of crypto projects Terra LUNA and Three Arrows Capital (3AC) at the time.
Following Ryoshi’s departure, the Shiba Inu lead developer, Shytoshi Kusama, took charge of releasing updates and overseeing daily on-chain activities. Known as an early SHIB buyer and a vocal proponent, Shytoshi Kusama worked alongside Ryoshi during the project’s early days.
In the month of Ryoshi’s disappearance, Shytoshi Kusama published via Medium an appreciation article applauding the founder’s efforts to build the dog-themed memecoin project. The lead developer stated that Ryoshi’s exit is similar to a master who leaves after training his apprentices all they need to handle a challenging task. According to Shytoshi Kusama, the founder’s departure will help bring “global decentralization” to the dog-themed project.
Since then, the lead developer has worked with a team of brilliant minds, like the project’s marketing expert Lucie, to bolster the Shiba Inu ecosystem. These moves have catapulted Shiba Inu to the limelight among leading memecoin projects.
Shiba Inu Tokenomics
Shiba Inu’s native token, SHIB, has a total supply of one quadrillion tokens. As of April 10th, 2024, the memecoin’s circulating supply is over 589.5 trillion SHIB tokens. Circulating supply refers to the total number of crypto assets that are in circulation and publicly available to trade.
According to public data from the price tracking website CoinStats, SHIB has a trading price of $0.0000274. The value is meagre compared with other sister tokens and how far the Shiba Inu ecosystem has come.
The project’s team has introduced token burns to bolster SHIB’s value. Token burn refers to permanently erasing a portion of a cryptocurrency’s supply from its circulating supply. This move reduces the available supply and potentially increases the scarcity and value of the remaining tokens. A token burn can occur within a specific time frame.
In December 2023, Shiba Inu’s development team announced it would officially commence a frequent token-burning mechanism to bolster the memecoin’s price. The project started with a manual burning phase before progressing to an automated burning phase in January 2024. As of April 10, 2024, over 410 trillion SHIB tokens have been burned from the token’s circulating supply. Since the year’s start, SHIB’s value has soared by over 200%, thanks to the frequent burns and overall bullish trends within the crypto market.
Shiba Inu Competitors
Shiba Inu ranks as the second largest memecoin by market cap ranking. Here are comparisons between SHIB and three top rival memecoin projects:
Dogecoin vs Shiba Inu
Dogecoin (DOGE) is a dog-themed memecoin project launched on the Ethereum network in December 2013 by two software engineers, Jackson Palmer and Billy Markus. Despite its initial purpose as a joke, the cryptocurrency grew into becoming the first memecoin and the first dog coin in the crypto industry. Since then, DOGE pioneered the memecoin movement, opening the doors to thousands of memecoin projects today. It currently ranks as the leading memecoin by market cap.
In terms of market cap, SHIB has over $16.9 billion, falling behind DOGE, which has more than $29.2 billion. SHIB’s price is also substantially small compared with DOGE’s value, worth above $0.1. In terms of community engagement, DOGE and SHIB are on par, showing the same 3.9 million followers on X social account.
Dogwifhat vs Shiba Inu
Dogwifhat (WIF) is a dog-themed memecoin based on the Solana network. Created in December 2023, the token features a Shiba Inu dog, Achi, wearing a pink knitted hat. Since its debut, the dog-themed mascot has been auctioned as an NFT. The memecoin’s market cap has soared to the third largest position, flipping several memecoins, including PEPE.
In terms of market cap, SHIB sits above WIF, which has over $4.1 billion. SHIB also has a larger community than WIF. Dogwifhat’s X handle shows over 77,700 followers. Meanwhile, WIF’s value is higher than that of SHIB as it is valued at $4.2.
Pepe vs Shiba Inu
PEPE is an Ethereum-based memecoin project featuring a humanoid frog cartoon character called Pepe the Frog. It was launched in April 2023 with no intrinsic use case. Still, the project garnered massive engagement, taking its market cap to incredible heights. It currently ranks as the fourth largest memecoin.
Comparing PEPE and SHIB, the latter positions itself higher. In terms of market cap, SHIB’s metric surpasses that of PEPE, which is above $3.2 billion. SHIB’s community is also substantially higher than PEPE’s, which sits at around 692,200 followers on X. PEPE’s price at $0.0000077 is also lesser than that of SHIB.
How to Stake Shiba Inu
Staking Shiba Inu involves “burying” or delegating portions of SHIB tokens to a liquidity pool in exchange for rewards. Investors can stake SHIB through ShibaSwap or a centralized exchange like Binance. This article will focus on a step-by-step guide on how to stake Shiba Inu on ShibaSwap.
Follow these steps to stake Shiba Inu on ShibaSwap:
- Fund your MetaMask wallet with SHIB or Swap ETH for SHIB on ShibaSwap.
- Connect your funded wallet to ShibaSwap.
- On ShibaSwap’s web page, navigate to the BONE section and select “Bury Shib.”
A benefit of using ShibaSwap is that users can also stake LEASH and BONE.
Is Shiba Inu A Good Investment?
Like several other cryptocurrencies, Shiba Inu has its perks and its downside. Whether or not the memecoin is worth investing in is left to each investor. However, here are some benefits and drawbacks of the crypto asset that will guide user’s decision:
Benefits
- It is low-priced, meaning it is worth pennies, and almost anyone can buy it.
- It has utility within the Shiba Inu ecosystem.
- It has a massive community support.
- It is available on centralized and decentralized exchanges.
Drawbacks
- It is a volatile cryptocurrency.
- Heavy reliance on the Ethereum network.
- It has minimal real-world utility.
Since its inception, Shiba Inu has made investors turn millionaires. For example, 57% of SHIB investors netted massive profits as the token’s value soared in late February 2024. In October 2021, a YouTuber declared that he missed out on becoming a billionaire by investing $2,000 in SHIB.
On the other hand, the asset’s sluggish price has caused several others to remain in losses over an extended timeframe. The token was enveloped by bearish trends for most of 2023, causing investors to remain underwater. Some likely lost interest in the dog-themed memecoin.
Is It Too Late to Buy Shiba Inu?
There is a saying within the crypto industry that it is never too late to buy cryptocurrencies. Still, each investor needs to consider the facts before investing in any asset. In SHIB’s case, investors need to study the asset’s performance since its launch on the crypto market.
A year after the token’s launch, its value soared by a massive 100,000,000%, making several investors millionaires. SHIB skyrocketed to an all-time high of $0.000089 in 2021. Despite the price drops between 2022 and 2023, the asset’s price picked up and soared over 220% in the first quarter of 2024.
There are talks about SHIB soaring to $0.01, $0.1, or $1. However, such a surge is highly unlikely to occur as the memecoin’s market cap would need to soar to as high as $59 trillion for the price surge to occur. It is worth noting that this speculative market cap is significantly higher than that of Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency, and other companies such as Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, and Meta.
Dogecoin saw a significant price surge after the tech billionaire Elon Musk voiced his support for the asset. Market experts speculate that if Shiba Inu sees a massive embrace from a prominent figure, it will also see an upward price trajectory.
Conclusion
Shiba Inu has grown from becoming a meme into a successful crypto project. With sister tokens like LEASH and BONE and a layer-2 network, the memecoin project has strengthened its ecosystem. It also has a large community called the Shib Army.
This article discussed the history of the dog-themed memecoin and whether it is a good investment asset. As investors decide whether to invest in the asset or not, it is important to carefully consider the facts outlined in this Shiba Inu guide.
Fortune Samuel | December 9, 2024
Faith | November 5, 2024
