Dogecoin struggles to keep pace with shiba inu's record-breaking surge even as Elon Musk boosts his favorite cryptocurrency

• Dogecoin is still grappling with shiba inu for the meme token crown Thursday, despite a boost from Elon Musk.
• After the Tesla CEO joked about doge and scams on Twitter, it bucked the crypto market trend by rising in price.
• The dogecoin spin-off overtook Musk's favorite cryptocurrency by market value on Thursday.
• Shiba inu has rallied as much as 1,000% in October to move up the list of top 10 cryptos by market cap.

Dogecoin got a boost from its best-known advocate Elon Musk on Thursday, but it wasn't enough to completely fend off a skyrocketing shiba inu, as the meme tokens battle for market value supremacy.

Self-proclaimed "dogecoin killer" shiba inu gained as much as 60% to hit a record high of $0.00008616 on Wednesday, according to CoinMarketCap data. Its gains took it to the 8th-biggest cryptocurrency spot as it overtook dogecoin in market value.

The battle continued Thursday as shiba inu added to its epic rally with a 36% rise, while dogecoin moved up 29% to 30 cents after Musk mentioned it in a Twitter exchange about cryptocurrency-related scams.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO was responding to dogecoin creator Billy Markus, who tweeted Wednesday that "there are no promises in crypto, except from scammers."

Musk jokingly said: "If I send you 2 Doge, will you promise to send me 1 Doge?"

Dogecoin has transformed this year from an obscure and novel coin to a household name after being championed by Musk and an enthusiastic group of fans. The Tesla billionaire once referred to it as his favorite cryptocurrency.

He also recently revealed he doesn't have any personal investment in shiba inu.

The ethereum-based alternative to dogecoin has shot up about 1,000% in the past month as the "SHIBarmy" rallied behind the token. Its blistering gains have been partly driven by an online petition calling on Robinhood to add shiba inu to its list of tradeable cryptocurrencies. By comparison, dogecoin is up 60% in the past month.

Created in August 2020, shiba inu has taken less than two years to become a contender for a top 10 cryptocurrency spot. On Thursday, $SHIB's market cap of $43 billion trumped $DOGE's $40 billion as of 8:50 a.m. ET.

Major cryptocurrencies reversed losses after declining earlier in the day. Bitcoin rose 3% to about $61,142. Ether rose 4% to $4,174, and cardano's ada rose 1% to $2.02.

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