'Another Dogecoin Craze' Shiba Inu Surges 40%... Enters Top 10 Market Cap Rankings

Bitcoin Falls to the $58,000 Range

[Asia Economy New York=Correspondent Baek Jong-min] The 'Gangaji Coin' that shook the cryptocurrency market at the beginning of the year is shaking the entire market again. Shiba Inu surged 45% in 24 hours, entering the top 10 in cryptocurrency market capitalization.

Image of Shiba Inu

As Bitcoin falls back to the $50,000 range with the effect of the introduction of Bitcoin futures exchange-traded funds (ETFs) fading, attention is also focused on funds flowing into meme stocks.

According to CoinMarketCap on the 27th (local time), Shiba Inu surged 41%, showing a rapid rise with a 7-day increase rate of 138%.

Shiba Inu Price Chart

According to cryptocurrency price provider CoinGecko, Shiba Inu surpassed stablecoin USD Coin and Dogecoin to rank 9th in market capitalization.

CNBC reported that Shiba Inu is a meme coin created by an individual named Ryoshi in August last year using the image of a Shiba dog like Dogecoin, and that the nickname 'Dogecoin Killer' has become a reality. Shiba Inu is based on the Ethereum blockchain. CNBC explained that Shiba Inu is rapidly growing in decentralized finance (DeFi).

Coindesk cited blockchain analytics firm Nansen, reporting that $160 million worth of funds flowed into Shiba Inu. Daniel Kuh, a researcher at Nansen, expressed surprise, saying he did not expect such a large amount of funds to pour into Shiba Inu.

Another analytics firm, Santiment, also reported that since October, large investors called 'whales' have been making Shiba Inu transactions of at least $1 million.

Coindesk identified that grassroots investments by individuals are driving Shiba Inu up amid institutional investors' neglect.

Coindesk also suggested the hypothesis that Shiba Inu's surge is due to Chinese investors' influence. Citing Google Trends, Coindesk noted that last week the search index for Shiba Inu in China was 98, comparable to the US's 100, raising the possibility that Chinese people engaged in Shiba Inu trading despite the authorities' cryptocurrency ban.

Unlike Shiba Inu's surge, most cryptocurrency prices are weak. Bitcoin's price fell 5.22% compared to 24 hours ago, trading at $58,914. The 7-day decline rate reached 11%.

Ethereum dropped 4.3%, Cardano fell 8.2%, Ripple declined 7%, and Dogecoin also plunged 7%. Dogecoin had a sharp rally at the beginning of the year supported by Tesla CEO Elon Musk but recently dropped 70% from its peak.

Musk recently stated that he does not hold Shiba Inu and only owns Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin among cryptocurrencies.

As Shiba Inu's price surged, cheers from Shiba Inu investors continue on the community site Reddit. Reddit users posted memes describing Shiba Inu as a runaway locomotive surging while the entire cryptocurrency market is falling.

Shiba Inu investors are also petitioning the stock trading app Robinhood to allow Shiba Inu trading to expand the trading base. Previously, Robinhood quickly allowed Dogecoin trading compared to other exchanges, inducing a price surge.