Shiba Inu Coin and other memecoins rocket up in latest crypto market surprise

Shiba Inu coin and other “meme coins” have seen dramatic surges in their value, in the latest shakeup of the crypto market.

Over the last day or so, many traditional cryptocurrencies have seen positive returns. Bitcoin and ethereum, the two largest, are both up around 2.5 per cent over the last day, capping off high returns over the last week.

But those modest gains looked small when compared with other meme coins, such as Shiba Inu coin, or SHIB, which is up 23 per cent over the last day. The cryptocurrency has gained almost 34 per cent over the last week, and almost $3 billion worth of the coin has been traded over the last 24 hours.

The other more traditional dog-themed cryptocurrency, dogecoin, also saw outsized gains. It is up 6.3 per cent over the day, and 14 per cent over the week.

And other, smaller canine cryptocurrencies saw similarly strong performances. Floki Inu – a cryptocurrency named after Elon Musk’s own shiba inu dog – has gained almost 15 per cent over the last 24 hours.

All of the various dog-themed coins are part of a family of cryptocurrencies that are all inspired by the “doge” meme. The original, dogecoin, began as something of a satire of the growing number of cryptocurrencies, but has inspired a whole host more in the time since.

Shiba Inu coin has performed the best of those coins that have followed dogecoin. At times, it has even been worth more than the original – though even with its recent surge, Shiba Inu’s market cap is only $15.2 billion, compared with dogecoin’s almost $21 billion.

Memecoins – and their more traditional cousins, meme stocks, such as Gamestop and AMC cinemas – have often seen dramatic price rises in recent months as investors have looked to capitalise on their volatile share prices. They will often rocket up in price as they go viral on the internet, before often dropping back down again.

As such, many have been left out of pocket by the volatile performance of the cryptocurrencies. Some have even turned out to be outright scams, as in the case of the Squid Game-themed cryptocurrency.