With interest in cryptocurrency having exploded during the pandemic, with coins like Bitcoin soaring to over $60,000 in value in April, smaller altcoins like Shiba Inu coin have emerged as new favourites among crypto fans.
Shiba Inu coin, trading on crypto exchanges like Coinbase as SHIB, has been trading at a price of roughly £0.00000500 for the last few months since falling from its peak of £0.00002764 in May.
But the meme coin’s price soared by up to 50% in value on Tuesday after Tesla chief executive and cryptocurrency guru Elon Musk helped usher the coin to new recent highs.
Here’s what Shiba Inu coin is, its price today and what Elon Musk said on Twitter to cause the price climb.
What is Shiba Inu coin?
A spin-off from the more mainstream meme coin, Dogecoin, Shiba Inu coin emerged in August 2020 after it was created by an anonymous founder known as Ryoshi, believed to be based in China.
The coin has been trading at low and volatile values since its creation, but quickly became a popular alternative to major coins like Bitcoin and Ethereum, as well as a fresh new follow-up to Dogecoin, through 2020 and into 2021.
Its ability to eclipse Dogecoin, which was created in 2013 as a satirical take on the popularity of Bitcoin and enshrined the shiba inu ‘doge’ meme in cryptocurrency form, earned Shiba Inu coin the nickname of ‘Dogecoin killer’.
Unlike Bitcoin, which as the world’s most popular and dominant cryptocurrency is less easily swayed by minor news events and market changes, smaller altcoins are far more susceptible to sudden, large fluctuations in price due to having greater negligibility in value.
Shiba Inu coin was recently listed on Coinbase for the first time in mid-September, with its price increasing by 34% after it was listed on the giant crypto exchange on 16 September.
What did Elon Musk say about Shiba Inu coin?
With the negligible price of coins like Shiba Inu and Dogecoin making them more likely to experience tougher peaks and troughs than major cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin, Shiba Inu coin, baby doge and Dogecoin have all been influenced by Elon Musk’s tweets.
In the early hours of Monday morning (4 October), the Tesla and SpaceX founder tweeted an image of his new Shiba Inu puppy with merely the caption “Floki Frunkpuppy” – which was enough to create a Twitter trend hyping up the coin with #SHIB and rallying to increase its value.
As a result, Shiba Inu coin’s price shifted a whole decimal point and climbed from £0.00000500 to approximately £0.00001131 as of 9pm on Monday.
On Tuesday 5 October, Shiba Inu was trading at around £0.00000993 as of 11.15am in a 50% increase on the last 24 hours, 95% increase on the last seven days and 10,996,200.77% climb on the previous year, according to Coinbase.
Dogecoin’s price has likewise seen a boost of 11.05% on the last 24 hours and was trading at £0.175142 at the time of writing.
Baby Doge was meanwhile up over eight percent at a price of $0.000000000709 on Tuesday morning, according to coinmarketcap.com.
