What is Shiba Inu — the crypto trading more than Bitcoin in India?

Shiba Inu (SHIB) has emerged as the most popular choice for crypto enthusiasts in India and across the globe. After touching its all-time high price of $0.00008845 on Thursday, the memecoin price has softened slightly to $0.00007328. Titled 'Dogecoin Killer', it has gained over 130% in the last seven days. SHIB has been in the news for being listed on more exchanges, thereby increasing liquidity and access to the token.

"The growth of Shiba Inu shows the power of being a community-driven project," says Nischal Shetty, Founder, WazirX. Adding to it, Vitalik Buterin also burned over $6 billion worth of SHIB tokens. On WazirX — the country's largest cryptocurrency exchange — SHIB has overtaken Bitcoin’s position as the top traded token in the Indian rupee market this week. In the past 24 hours, over $320 million worth SHIB has been traded on WazirX. This market movement has also caused WazirX to record an all-time-high 24-hour trading volume of over $560 million. Should you invest in Shiba Inu? Is it a meaningful cryptocoin?

Shibu Inu is a coin that aims to be an Ethereum-based replacement to Dogecoin, the very popular memecoin. Bitcoin is designed to be scarce whereas SHIB is intentionally made in a way that is abundant in nature. The total circulating supply of it is one quadrillion. It has some actual use-cases.

As per Nirmal Ranga, Chief Revenue Officer, ZebPay: "The Shiba Inu token system supports innovative and artistic projects like NFT art incubators. The development of its decentralised exchange called the ShibaSwap is also in the pipeline — all factors which have been driving the tokens value and interest among traders."

After the phenomenal recent jump in the prices of SHIB, it is expected to see a rise in its investor base, experts believe. With Bitcoin and Ethereum prices on the higher side, SHIB still offers a low-cost entry into the lucrative crypto market, says Shivam Thakral, CEO, BuyUcoin — a home-grown cryptocurrency exchange — and the best part is that it is available in large quantities in the domestic markets. "SHIB is already listed on some of the most prominent exchanges across the globe and it’s just a matter of time when every exchange in the world will offer SHIB to its users. As the investor base for SHIB grows, we will see a further increase in its value in the days to come."

Undoubtedly, SHIB is making a place for itself among the top cryptocurrencies. But Ranga of ZebPay adds that the surge in volumes that the token has been witnessing can also be attributed to the fear of missing out (FOMO) that typically arises — as interest peaks, and traders rush to take part in the rally to book profits. Currently, the memecoin holds the eighth rank in terms of market cap. It has a total market cap of $42.28 billion.