Cryptocurrencies linked to
Shiba Inu
—a digital asset originally based on an internet joke—were outperforming as the prospect of a wider blockchain universe linked to those tokens inched closer to reality.
Shiba Inu is a so-called memecoin because it was launched initially as mostly an online joke. The token—the 15th-largest crypto—was named in reference to
Dogecoin,
another memecoin that itself is a play on an internet meme involving a Shiba Inu dog.
Shiba Inu, Dogecoin, and many other smaller spinoffs tend to trade in step with the price of Bitcoin and other cryptos, though they occasionally buck the trend when, for instance, Elon Musk tweets about them.
But recently, Shiba Inu’s prospects have gotten a lot more serious, with developers backing the token outlining plans to launch a layer-2 blockchain—built on top of the Ethereum network—that would make the memecoin much more than a joke.
Developers in January revealed plans for the “Shibarium,” which dramatically will build out the Shiba Inu ecosystem with the eponymous crypto as well as smaller peer tokens called Bone and Leash. The Shibarium will use Shiba Inu, Bone, and Leash in protocols that serve the metaverse, gaming, and Web3, with Bone being the network’s “native token,” used to pay for transactions on the blockchain.
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The latest news came late Tuesday, as the Shiba Inu developers announced on Twitter that the first public beta test of Shibarium would be launching this week.
Shiba Inu initially spiked but has since fallen back alongside other cryptos on Wednesday, though it is still outperforming
Bitcoin.
Shiba Inu has fallen less than 0.5% in 24 hours compared with Bitcoin’s 1.5% decline.
Digital assets were lower after the
Dow Jones Industrial Average
and
S&P 500
saw their worst day in two weeks on Tuesday amid investor fears over higher interest rates following remarks from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
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But Bone and Leash, the other Shibarium-linked tokens, were flying. Bone has climbed 19% in the past day while Leash has jumped 9%, with their combined market capitalizations climbing to a total of around $475 million.
Write to Jack Denton at [email protected]
