WazirX has listed Shiba Inu — here's everything you need to know about the said Dogecoin killer

Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX is among the first to list SHIB (Shiba Inu) token trading in Indian rupees. SHIB is a decentralised spontaneous community-building experiment developed within the ecosystem. SHIB, also known as Shiba Token, is a decentralised cryptocurrency created by an anonymous person known as "Ryoshi" in August 2020.

It launched less than a year ago and is named after the famous Japanese dog breed Shiba Inu. The meme "Doge" was created around a photo of a dog called Kabosu, who lives in Japan with Atsuko Sato. The meme now plays a critical role behind the inspiration of SHIB and Dogecoin.

ShibaSwap is the project's own decentralised exchange cryptocurrency, where you can trade other cryptos for SHIB, or vice-versa. It’s yet to launch, so the only option left is third-parties like Binance and Kucoin.

A single SHIB coin is nearly worthless -- less than ₹0.0012 as of May 18, 10:00 a.m. But its trading has grown massively in the last few weeks as it got listed on more exchanges. The volatility came in after Tesla founder Elon Musk had tweeted he would like to own a Shiba pup. It excited the crypto market, and the prices rose by 300 percent. SHIB is often said to be a satirical rip-off of Dogecoin.

SHIB again made headlines when Vitalik Buterin, the founder of cryptocurrency ETH (Ethererum), said he'd donate close to $1 billion (Rs 7,310 crore) to fund India's fight against a second Covid wave. India's Covid Crypto Relief Fund received 500 ETH and 50 trillion SHIB. Buterin holds 50% of the total coins, giving him extraordinary power over the currency's future.

SHIB token is often touted to be a Dogecoin killer, as both of them are considered meme currencies that took off due to Musk. They lack fundamentals at the moment, and there are few options of directly spending it. Musk's recent pessimism about Bitcoin has further fuelled the Dogecoin rally, but many enthusiasts believe a ripple effect will push SHIB also into the mainstream arena.

Dogecoin is built using the same technology as Bitcoin, while SHIB is based on Ethereum. It's a fungible token, and since its value is microscopic, you can hold billions or even trillions of them. Unfortunately, it has had close to zero takers since its launch in August 2020, and its peak worth was ₹0.0029 on May 11, 3:30 a.m. Since then, the token has lost almost 40% of its value in the last week, and organic growth seems unlikely.

Binance does warn that SHIB is a more volatile coin than many and cautions anyone interested in getting involved that they may see significant changes in the coin's value.


SEE ALSO:
After ditching Bitcoin, Elon Musk is now working on making Dogecoin efficient
Four reasons why cryptocurrency Ethereum has been on a bull run