Meme coins are well known with the example of DOGE. However, the surprise appearance, rise and popularity of Shiba Inu really does challenge the edge of common sense. Yet, it remains popular and survives with demand. The beauty of the token is both its simple ease of use as well as powerful potential for gain. That comes in the duality of Shiba Inu's value. It's so small, one can buy a ton of SHIB without much exposure. Yet, when the token does rise, it can expand the value of that small stake notably. Of course, it can go the other direction too.
The DOGE Template
Created in 2013, DOGE was entirely a spoof cryptocurrency. Fully exposed as a joke, DOGE took off, coining its mascot, the Shiba Inu dog as its recognizable symbol. What folks didn't expect at the time, however, was how popular the joke would be. DOGE became the underdog; the no-winner everyone wanted to root for. And in doing so, it became a winner. People literally began making real money on the rise of DOGE's value. And that monetized the power of popularity, completely irrational but clearly profitable.
Using the DOGE model, Shiba Inu appeared in the middle of the pandemic in August 2020. The authors were known anonymously as Ryoshi, but the coin clearly rocketed onto the radar as the next popular meme coin. Whatever was flawed about SHIB, it clearly hit the popular meme target and scored a hit. People wanted SHIB and wanted a lot of it.
ERC-20 Friendly
Unlike DOGE, SHIB works on the ERC-20 network, which essentially is Ethereum-based. That opened a wide audience for SHIB, especially through DeFi platforms and exchanges. SHIB was also accessible and could be staked in liquidity pool platforms as well. That compatibility easily opened up access to the token well beyond many other choices. It also helped that the Ryoshi group placed a good amount of SHIB in various DeFi LPs for the purpose of making it easy to trade and exchange SHIB. Then ShibaSwap was established, making it even easier to trade for SHIB, as well as staking and farming, adding value to the token in terms of new income potentials.
Early criticism of SHIB, however, focused on the security of it's blockchain as well as the clarity of its management or decentralization. While there was plenty of community support, actual architecture transparency was lacking. And, like Bitcoin, the actual authorship of SHIB continued to remain hidden and undisclosed. Unlike Bitcoin, the minting of more SHIB was not capped. So, like DOGE, it's value has no mathematical basis based on limitations, a key factor for pure supply and demand to raise a value price.
Volume Matters
Again, SHIB value is not gained on the individual token. It's the volume that matters. The token's market is clearly a day trader's drunken brawl. The current value is currently at a microscopic $0.00000753/coin. And that value is three-fourths below, or 76.72% under the record high of $0.000032/coin. With some 589,348,018,139,356 SHIB in circulation currently, no one is making big gains on a handful of SHIB. It comes with large positions and minute price changes that can have dramatic impacts in the aggregate.
Oh, and its a meme coin too. Did we mention that?
