The digital currency Shiba Inu shot up by 69% in 24 hours, tripling its overall value in one week.
According to Coinbase, this puts its market value above $10 billion, making it the world’s 20th-biggest cryptocurrency.
Cryptocurrency is notoriously volatile, but interest in digital currency has surged during the pandemic, helping to keep its value high.
READ MORE: Cryptocurrency price changes – including Bitcoin, Cardona, Hex and Solana
This latest rise follows an uptick in digital currencies across the board, which saw bitcoin hit a high of $50,000. In its shadow, smaller coins such as Shiba Inu coin have emerged as new favourites.
But what is a Shiba Inu coin and what caused the sudden jump?
What are Shiba Inu coins?
Shiba Inu coins were founded in August 2020 by an anonymous person going by the name of Ryoshi, believed to be based in China.
According to the coin’s website, it’s “a decentralized meme token that evolved into a vibrant ecosystem.”
The token began as a spin-off from Dogecoin, the more mainstream memecoin which was created as a satirical take on bitcoin.
Shiba Inu, named after the Japanese dog bred, started off trading low but picked up pretty quickly. It even surpassed Dogecoin, earning it the nickname of ‘Dogecoin killer’.
It was listed on the major crypto exchange platform Coinbase on September 16 2020, and is now used for payments by some sports teams and theatres.
Why did the Shiba Inu coin price go up?
Shiba Inu has been popular amongst crypto fans for a few months now. This latest leap came after Elon Musk tweeted a picture of his Shiba Inu puppy Floki in a Tesla. Yes, you read that right.
Because they are less established, altcoins like the Shiba Inu token are easily swayed by small market changes, news stories or the social media activity of tech billionaires.
This isn’t the first time a Tweet has effected the value of crypto.
The Tesla founder and Chief Engineer at SpaceX has shifted the value of bitcoin, the most established coin there is, numerous times.
At the start of 2021 Musk added #bitcoin to his Twitter bio and the price of bitcoin rose nearly 20% – from $32,000 to nearly $38,000 – in a handful of hours.
Similar bursts happened when he Tweeted about Dogecoin. Equally, he caused a slump in value when he said “bitcoin is bs.”
Where to buy Shiba Inu coins
Shiba coins are a decentralised coin, which means it can be bought from any peer-to-peer marketplace (DEX) such as Uniswap, the leading decentralized crypto exchange.
It is also available on a growing number of CEX’s, (centralised exchanges) but you should ensure it is safe and secure.
If you want to avoid any risks, it can be bought direct from the source through ShibaSwap, where, as the name suggests you swap it for coins such as Ethereum.
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