Shiba Inu (SHIB) was listed on three different cryptocurrency exchanges in the past 48 hours, after an explosive 966% surge in the same time frame sent the token to 18th in the market cap rankings.
Self-described as the “Dogecoin Killer”, Shiba’s instant addition to Binance on May 10 surprised onlookers, many of whom expected a more in-depth listing process by the world’s largest crypto exchange.
What’s more, the fact that 50% of the SHIB token supply is in the hands of one individual made Binance’s decision to list the token immediately all the more surprising.
The Shiba team purposely sent 50% of the 1 quadrillion token supply to Ethereum co-creator Vitalik Buterin as a means to put the tokens out of circulation. The other 50% was apparently sent to the Uniswap app to provide liquidity. In doing so, the creators claim to have created a decentralized token, the fate of which will be decided solely by the market.
Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao spoke out on the issue of Shiba Inu on Monday, telling his Twitter audience that the exchange was simply following user demand. Zhao said demand to trade SHIB was so high that Binance ran out of deposit addresses for the Ethereum based token:
“Some have voiced concerns about $SHIB listing. We follow users. There is a large number of users demanding it, to the point where we ran out of ETH deposit addresses due to SHIB today. Never happened before for any other ERC20 coin.”
“Not endorsing it. Super high risk. NFA,” he added.
Shiba Inu’s recent emergence came fresh on the back of the rise of Dogecoin (DOGE). Like Dogecoin, Shiba Inu is emblazoned with a variation of the Shiba Inu dog meme. Also like Dogecoin, Shiba awakened from months of inactivity to surge to what was an all-time high on April 20 (i.e. 4/20 day), the same day Dogecoin reached a then all-time high of $0.420.
But what is there to Shiba Inu except for funny dogs and crazy percentage gains? Well, the project’s “woofpaper” alludes to the creation of ShibaSwap, a decentralized exchange where SHIB holders will be able to swap tokens and take part in yield farming. The exchange is currently undergoing “security tests, audits and final updates,” according to the project’s website.
In addition to SHIB, the project also encompasses a multi-token system consisting of BONE and LEASH. All three are expected to be used as part of Shiba Inu’s yield farming feature.
In addition to Binance and FTX, the OKEx exchange also fell in line and listed Shiba Inu according to Tuesday’s press release.
OKEx CEO Jay Hao used the term “experimental” to describe the motivations behind the token listing, and declared a willingness to list “memetic” tokens.
“We are pleased to welcome Shiba Inu to the OKEx platform. I appreciate their experimental spirit, which is exactly what the blockchain and crypto space needs. As an exchange, we are delighted to be able to offer a diverse portfolio of cryptocurrencies, including memetic tokens,” said Hao.
CoinGecko, a cryptocurrency data aggregator with close to 100 million views per month, still hasn’t given Shiba Inu a proper listing. By all accounts, this is because it has thus far failed to determine accurate circulation numbers for the token.
We asked Binance how the presence of 500 trillion SHIB (worth over $15 billion) in Vitalik Buterin’s personal wallet affected their calculations of the token’s circulating supply. They refused to comment on matters relating to Shiba Inu.