Shiba Inu Coin Enters Crypto Top 20 After 211% Growth In The Past Week


Shiba Inu Coin (SHIB) surged into the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market cap after tripling its value in the past week.

SHIB, an ERC-20 token built on the Ethereum blockchain, is worth $0.0000224 at the time of writing, with a market cap of $8.84bn. At the start of October, SHIB’s market cap was just $2.83bn (via CoinMarketCap).

However, SHIB is still 43% down from its All-Time High of $0.000388 on May 10.

Why Is SHIB up?

Dubbed the Dogecoin Killer, SHIB is among the best-performing memecoins based on the Shiba Inu dog.

On Monday, Elon Musk, the self-anointed Dogefather, tweeted an image of his new dog – a Shiba Inu named Floki. Musk’s tweet is thought to have kick-started SHIB’s growth, with many SHIB holders thanking the Tesla CEO for sending SHIB ‘to the moon’.

However, there are several other factors that may explain SHIB’s rise aside from an image of Elon Musk’s dog.

While SHIB is part of a saturated memecoin market, it is the native currency of ShibaSwap, a new decentralised exchange (DEX) with $275 million locked on the platform.

In late-September, Planet Crypto also reported on the India Crypto Covid Relief Fund converting its remaining SHIB, first donated by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin. Following the final conversion, members of the SHIB community hoped this would mark a turning point for the token’s stability. One user described the event as the end of a “hostage situation” for SHIB.

The token overtook Polygon (MATIC), Internet Computer (ICP), and Axie Infinity (AXS) in its rise to the top 20. It currently sits behind Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). SHIB was the fourth-most traded cryptocurrency in the last 24 hours, behind Tether (USDT), Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH).

Read More: Top Crypto Gainers: The Best-Performing Cryptocurrencies In 2021

[Image by Executium via Unsplash]

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