Shiba Inu Versus Dogecoin—Which Is the Top Meme Token?
Shiba Inu was officially added to Coinbase on Sept. 16, which increases the competition between Shiba Inu and Dogecoin. Which crypto is the top meme token?
Sep. 17 2021, Published 2:49 p.m. ET
Meme tokens have gained worldwide popularity and have been adopted by platforms and consumers alike. There are many dog-inspired tokens now including Shiba Inu, Dogecoin, Shiba Floki, EtherBone, Yuki Inu, Red Shiba, or others. Currently, Shiba Inu and Dogecoin are the top dogs.
Dogecoin was the original meme token. It increased nearly 9,000 percent in the first five months of 2021. Dogecoin gained the attention of public figures like Tesla CEO Elon Musk. He was even deemed “The Dogefather” because of the impact he had on the token's volatility.
As the hype around Doge calms down, Shiba Inu has seen its losses as well. Dogecoin has decreased by over 200 percent in the last four months, while SHIB decreased by over 400 percent during the same period. However, SHIB has started to have a bullish run within the last week, while DOGE went down. Both of the tokens are some of the most heavily traded meme tokens. So, which one is better?
SHIB has been one of the top trending cryptocurrencies in the world.
Shiba Inu is currently the third most trending crypto. It had the fifth-highest trading volume within the last 24 hours among all of the cryptos, according to CoinMarketCap. With over $2.5 million of trading volume in the last 24 hours, SHIB is four spots above DOGE in volume. DOGE is currently the ninth trending crypto.
SHIB is younger than DOGE and might have more potential.
While DOGE has been around for a much longer period of time, launching in 2013, Shiba Inu has been successful since it was released in August 2020. There are much more SHIB tokens available in circulation than DOGE. There are reportedly 497 trillion SHIB tokens in circulation, while there are only 129 billion DOGE tokens available. Because it’s older, Dogecoin has the sixth-highest market cap among crypto at over $31 billion, while Shiba Inu only has a market of nearly $3.5 billion.
Shiba Inu could have a better impact on the environment than Dogecoin.
Dogecoin relies on a PoW (Proof-of-Work) network since it's based on Bitcoin. Shiba Inu is also currently mined through PoW on an Ethereum-based network. However, with Ethereum switching to PoS (Proof-of-Stake) in 2022, SHIB mining could have less of a carbon footprint than mining DOGE.
PoS mining is known to have a much smaller carbon footprint than PoW. Alex Mashinsky, the CEO and founder of the Celsius exchange, reportedly expects Dogecoin to switch to PoS within the next two years. However, that would be after Ethereum upgrades to a PoS network. Dogecoin hasn't made any statements regarding plans to switch to PoS.
Coinbase officially added Shiba Inu to the platform.
On Sept. 16, Coinbase announced that it released the Shiba Inu (SHIB) token on the platform. Also, the token is available for full trading. The momentum behind the token is growing. The token is on other exchanges including Huobi, KuCoin, Crypto.com, and Binance. SHIB’s price skyrocketed over 40 percent on Sept. 16 with the Coinbase news, which resulted in a new month high.
