Shiba Inu ($SHIB) is already a household name in the realm of crypto, specifically meme coins. Shiba Inu, after all, has recorded an absurd 25510238.4% gain since its launch on November 28th, 2020—turning investors who threw in $50 of their lunch money into overnight millionaires at its absolute peak in October 2021.

And while SHIB has since plummeted by 83% from its all-time highs, it has firmly ensconced itself as a force in the meme coin sector and the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market cap. If Dogecoin is the king of meme coins, then Shiba Inu is very well the crown prince.

What is Shiba Inu?

Shiba Inu is an Ethereum-based ERC-20 meme coin based on the original Japanese dog breed of internet meme culture fame that Dogecoin used as its mascot. Its popularity and success as a meme coin are attributed to its dedicated community known as the SHIBarmy, not to mention a host of backers in the crypto and financial world.

The meme coin’s X account is followed by over 3.8 million users, more than top cryptos like Solana and Ethereum.

For the longest time, Shiba Inu has been regarded as just another meme coin. It was, after all, a satirical take on Dogecoin, which was already conceptualized as a satirical take on the “Wild West” days of crypto. But SHIB has shed its tag as a pump-and-dump meme coin after building out its very own vibrant ecosystem, allowing it to stand the test of time.

Who created Shiba Inu?

Shiba Inu was created in August 2020 by an entity known only as “Ryoshi.” Created as a take on Dogecoin, Shiba Inu was first marketed as the “Dogecoin Killer.”

The meme coin began without any long-term vision and narrative besides just another meme coin, but nevertheless gained a rapid following due to its explosive meme coin virality and creative marketing tactics.

Ryoshi’s ultimate goal was to create an entirely decentralized, community-driven project whose direction was dictated by its SHIBarmy. The organic, grassroots ethos to building out its vision has been pivotal in Shiba In’s growth in its quest to draw millions of followers and backers, firmly positioning it as one of the most popular and established cryptocurrencies to invest in.

How does Shiba Inu work?

SHIB has evolved significantly since its initial inception as a meme coin. It has since become a community token enabling holders to participate and interact within the growing Shiba inu ecosystem.

Beyond the original SHIB ERC-20 token, the ecosystem now supports its own decentralized exchange (ShibaSwap), NFTs, a layer-2 scalability solution (Shibarium), and SHIB-based blockchain games. Users can utilize the project’s foundational SHIB token to interact with these ecosystem components, as well as the following three tokens:

Leash ($LEASH). Leash was launched in 2021 as a rewards token for liquidity providers on ShibaSwap. It can be used to access exclusive features on the decentralized exchange and ecosystem perks, as well as participate in liquidity mining.
Bone ($BONE). Bone serves as the governance token of ShibaSwap. Holders can use it to vote on governance proposals and earn staking and liquidity provision rewards, not to mention gaining access to exclusive community events.
Treat ($TREAT). Treat was recently launched to replace the primary rewards token for ShibaSwap users. One of its main functions is to supply liquidity to the SHI, the provisional stablecoin for the Shiba Inu ecosystem.

What is the $SHIB token?

Shiba Inu’s foundational token is $SHIB, an ERC-20 token built on the Ethereum blockchain. Transactions on the Shiba Inu ecosystem are evaluated through a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism. First developed as part of the initial wave of meme coins in 2020 and taking inspiration from Dogecoin, Shiba Inu has since expanded its ecosystem and iterated on its initial premise as a “pure” meme coin.

$SHIB key features:

Decentralization. $SHIB was created with the express goal of decentralization in mind, with no singular entity exercising control over the ecosystem.
Accessibility. $SHIB is widely accessible across a variety of exchanges with ample liquidity, making it easy for prospective investors to buy, sell, and trade.
Community-driven ethos. Shiba Inu derives its momentum from the SHIBarmy, its community that plays a major role in building and promoting the broader $SHIB ecosystem to the rest of the world.

$SHIB tokenomics

One of the unique facets of Shiba Inu is its supply of 1 quadrillion $SHIB tokens. At the time of its August 2020 launch, Shiba Inu generated the highest number of coins in a crypto project—ever. After its launch, half of the $SHIB supply was locked in Uniswap, with the other half going to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.

Buterin decided to burn 90% of the tokens by sending them to a dead wallet and donated the remaining 10% to the Indian CryptoRelief Fund, a community-run fund created to combat the COVID pandemic in India. Currently, the total circulating supply of Shiba Inu is approximately 589.6 trillion $SHIB tokens.

Who are the closest competitors of Shiba Inu?

Shiba Inu’s meteoric rise and eventual ecosystem expansion has seen it go head-to-head with its primary competitor Dogecoin for meme coin supremacy in the crypto world. Here’s a quick rundown on Shiba Inu’s closest competitors:

Dogecoin. Dogecoin, the original meme coin that set off the trend, serves as the main competition of Shiba Inu. Both meme coins surged to all-time highs in 2021 and followed similar-looking charts that enabled early investors to turn in eye-watering gains. Dogecoin’s success was largely tied to its light-hearted nature and its use of the Shiba Inu dog breed as its mascot. Dogecoin itself was created as a satirical take on the rampant speculation during the early days of crypto, while Shiba Inu was created as a satirical take on Dogecoin. As of press time, Dogecoin sits at a $15 billion market cap, making it the leading cryptocurrency by capitalization and 9th-largest overall. However, Dogecoin lacks the robust ecosystem that Shiba Inu has built out since launching.
PEPE. PEPE is a fairly new ERC-20 meme coin built on Ethereum based on the anthropomorphic frog of internet meme culture fame known as Pepe the Frog. PEPE notably surged to all-time highs last May 2024, just over a year since launching in April 2023. The token is often seen as a pure meme coin whose utility is largely tied to community-driven initiatives such as contests. PEPE trails Shiba Inu in the meme coin charts as the third-largest meme coin by market cap.
FLOKI. FLOKI, formerly known as Floki Inu, was among the Shiba Inu “derivative” meme coins that launched in the wake of Shiba Inu’s initial success. Like Shiba Inu, FLOKI was first created as a pure meme coin whose utility was derived mainly from speculation; since then, FLOKI has followed the direction of Shiba Inu by building out its very own FLOKI Ecosystem, with a strong focus on decentralized finance under its FlokiFi suite of products. The meme coin, named after Elon Musk’s dog, is the fifth-largest meme coin by market cap.

$SHIB price development

Shiba Inu (SHIB) started from $0.000000000056 and went all the way up to $0.00003791 on May 10, 2021. Since then, the Shiba coin has experienced a steep downfall and is currently trending at around $0.000006453.

$SHIB launched in August 2020 at a price of $0.000000000056, peaking all the way to $0.00008616 on October 28th 2021 as it surged to a market cap of $32.8 billion.

While $SHIB has since dropped drastically, trading at $0.0000146 and a market cap of $8.6 billion at press time, Shiba Inu showed its resilience by peaking at a $18 billion market cap in 2024. $SHIB is the 2nd-largest meme coin by market cap, trailing only its predecessor Dogecoin. The meme coin is the 11th-largest cryptocurrency in the overall Coinmarketcap standings.

$SHIB price predictions and forecasts

Shiba Inu’s popularity as a meme coin makes it an ideal way for individuals looking to gain exposure to the lucrative sector. Let’s take a look at $SHIB price predictions from 2024 to 2026 based on its fundamentals.

$SHIB price prediction for 2024

According to Changelly, $SHIB could trade at a low of $0.0000126 and a high of $0.0000220 for the remainder of 2024. Average trading prices may reach a bullish estimate of $0.0000314 should the market close out the year on a positive note.

Coinpedia, meanwhile, sets the $SHIB targets between $0.000010 and a high of $0.00002026 by the end of the year should the canine-themed meme coin and the broader market sustain its momentum. However, given the volatility of meme coins, $SHIB could still possibly drop below support at $0.000010..

$SHIB price prediction for 2025

Changelly forecasts $SHIB to trade between a low of $0.0000146 and a high of $0.0000277, and a potential run up to $0.0000408 should bullish momentum build up. Coingape, for its part, predicts that $SHIB could trade at a maximum of $0.00003965 should Shiba Inu continue delivering on its roadmap and the token plays a major role in the resurgence of the metaverse.

If the current trend holds up, with the typical highs and lows, $SHIB could trade around the $0.00002807 mark. But if the market corrects and $SHIB bulls fail to keep up with the rampant liquidity of the asset on the myriad of exchanges it is listed on, a correction to $0.0000165 could occur.

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$SHIB price prediction for 2026

Based on Changelly’s technical analysis, $SHIB could trade between $0.000034 and $0.000042 and an average trading cost of $0.000035, while Coinpedia pegs $SHIB to trade between $0.0000201 to $0.00006392 in 2026, at an average trading price of around $0.00004201.

How to buy $SHIB on Houdini Swap

As a top cryptocurrency not only in the meme coin space but the broader crypto market, there’s no doubt that Shiba Inu remains a tantalizing investment in the feature. Shiba Inu could be in for some substantial gains in the coming years.

With the continued development of Shibarium, its Layer-2 scalability solution, as well as the growth of its metaverse, gaming, and DeFi utility, Shiba Inu may be in for a pump in the near future from anywhere between a 2x to a 10x gain.

Leading privacy-focused liquidity aggregator Houdini Swap offers $SHIB among its vast catalog of over 4000+ other cryptocurrencies, allowing you to easily trade, buy, and sell between 8 million combinations of crypto pairs at the highest standard of privacy that the industry can provide.

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