Shiba Inu coin price drops again in cryptocurrency crash – what Shiba Inu coin is and why it’s down today

Shiba Inu coin’s price fell with cryptocurrencies across the board on Friday (January 21) after the price of Bitcoin crashed below its recent $40,000 threshold to a six month low of $38,000 in value.

The price of Shiba Inu coin was trading down by 12% as of 6.30pm UK time today and was down by 23.69% on the past month, when it was fluctuating at around $0.000038.

Shiba Inu has repeatedly broken new record highs in the four days since Sunday as crypto investors hope to see the new favourite meme cryptocurrency reach $1 in value.

Trading as SHIB, the coin paying homage to the popular Shiba Inu dog breed and ‘Doge’ meme has been fluctuating around £0.00000500 for the last few months since falling from its previous peak of £0.00002764 in May – which it reached as Bitcoin soared to over $60,000 in value and led a huge price hike for cryptocurrencies across the board.

Shiba Inu’s fluctuating price has been swayed by Elon Musk’s tweets, with the Tesla founder’s controversial comments about cryptocurrency often contributing to the rise and fall of the coin’s value.

Here’s what Shiba Inu coin is, its price today (Thursday 28 October) and why it’s down today.

A spin-off from the more mainstream meme coin, Dogecoin, Shiba Inu coin emerged in August 2020 after it was created by an anonymous founder known as Ryoshi, believed to be based in China.

The coin has been trading at low and volatile values since its creation, but quickly became a popular alternative to major coins like Bitcoin and Ethereum, as well as a fresh new follow-up to Dogecoin, through 2020 and into 2021.

Its ability to eclipse Dogecoin, which was created in 2013 as a satirical take on the popularity of Bitcoin and enshrined the Shiba Inu ‘doge’ meme in cryptocurrency form, earned Shiba Inu coin the nickname of ‘Dogecoin killer’.

Unlike Bitcoin, which as the world’s most popular and dominant cryptocurrency is less easily swayed by minor news events and market changes, smaller altcoins are far more susceptible to sudden, large fluctuations in price due to having greater negligibility in value.

Shiba Inu coin was recently listed on Coinbase for the first time in mid-September, with its price increasing by 34% after it was listed on the giant crypto exchange on 16 September.

It has since experienced several bullish runs from crypto investors and traders who hope to see the meme cryptocurrency listed on stock trading and investment platform Robinhood.

Its latest run has saw large wallet holders accumulate even more of the currency, with cryptocurrency data aggregator CoinMarketCap reporting a 78% concentration of SHIB lies with large holders or ‘whales’.

The platform also placed Shiba Inu’s trading volume at $1,168,444,288 as 6.48pm on Friday, with a 275.87% increase in trading volume on the last 24 hours.

Shiba Inu coin’s price saw a significant rise in late October, hitting a new record high price of £0.000065 ($0.000089) on Thursday 28 October according to Coinbase.

SHIB prices have since dipped drastically, with the meme coin trading at £0.00001840 ($0.00002505) as of 6.54pm on Friday in an 11.6% fall on the last 24 hours and 19% fall on the last seven days.

But Shiba Inu coin’s price was still up by 24,036,888.05% on last year’s price, when it was trading at approximately £0.0000000001 on January 21 2020.

With the negligible price of coins like Shiba Inu and Dogecoin making them more likely to experience tougher peaks and troughs than major cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin, Shiba Inu coin, baby doge and Dogecoin have all been influenced by Elon Musk’s tweets.

In early October, the Tesla and SpaceX founder tweeted an image of his new Shiba Inu puppy with merely the caption “Floki Frunkpuppy” – which was enough to create a Twitter trend hyping up the coin with #SHIB and rallying to increase its value.

During Shiba Inu coin’s price surge on Sunday 24 October, Musk once again swayed the price of the cryptocurrency once again as he was asked by a Twitter user how much SHIB he was holding.

The Tesla founder’s simple response of “none” sent the coin plummeting from the then-record high reached on Sunday.

It’s worth noting that investing in cryptocurrencies, which are decentralised and unregulated by normal banks or financial regulators, comes with its risks.

The UK’s ultimate financial authority, the Financial Conduct Authority, has issued multiple warnings over investing or trading cryptocurrencies online and how to avoid crypto scams which have gone hand-in-hand with the crypto boom.

The FCA’s warning to UK consumers about crypto exchange Binance and ban on its attempt to create a UK operations arm came in line with its advice that consumers should check to see if firms dealing with crypto assets are registered on the Financial Services Register or approved by the FCA.

“Consumers should be aware of the risks and fully consider whether investing in high-return investments based on cryptoassets is appropriate for them,” the FCA states on its website, adding “they should check and carefully consider the cryptoasset business involved.”

You can buy cryptocurrencies on crypto exchanges such as Coinbase and eToro – but Shiba Inu coin is less widely available.

The meme coin is currently only available to buy and trade on major crypto exchanges Coinbase and Binance and a range of smaller exchanges due to it still being a relative newcomer to the crypto sphere and one of the many alt coins ticking away in the background behind major cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Investing in alt coins and meme coins prove particularly risky due to their extreme volatility and negligibility, so The Scotsman does not recommend or endorse crypto products.

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