Despite only launching in 2020, Shiba Inu (SHIB -2.57%) is widely considered one of the original meme cryptocurrencies. After Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE), which also had a Shiba Inu mascot, rose to prominence around that time, Shiba Inu essentially launched as a spin on Dogecoin.
Shiba Inu launched as an ERC-20 token, meaning it was built on Ethereum's blockchain network and therefore must abide by a set of principles that all ERC-20 tokens must follow.
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But in 2023, the developers built Shibarium, a layer-2 blockchain solution on top of Ethereum that essentially allows transactions to be conducted off of Ethereum. The purpose is to ease congestion on Ethereum's network and also make Shiba Inu transactions more affordable. Shibarium also introduced a burning mechanism that will essentially delete tokens from Shiba Inu's huge supply during certain transactions. Shibarium has also become a place where developers can build decentralized applications.
If you'd invested $1,000 in Shiba Inu five years ago right at the start, here's how much you'd have today.
It's been a wild ride
Cryptocurrencies are volatile as it is, but meme tokens can be even more volatile, given that they also tend to have a very popular following on social media. Historically, Shiba Inu has tended to be more volatile than Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency, experiencing more violent swings both up and down.
The cryptocurrency launched a little under five years ago at the price of $0.00000782. At its all-time high in October 2021, the token rose all the way $0.00006704. It then came down significantly before experiencing another big swing higher in March 2024. But since then, the token has struggled, perhaps due to high interest rates and also some of the volatility experienced this year.
As of this writing on July 30, Shiba Inu trades at $0.00001290, meaning after everything, the token is up about 65% over the last five years, which is not nearly as good as the S&P 500 index's roughly 95% gain. So, if you had invested $1,000 in Shiba Inu in August 2020 when the token launched, you'd have about $1,650 today.
