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What's going to be the next Shiba Inu?
27 Apr 2022
After Bitcoin and Ethereum, two of the world’s best-known crypto assets are canine-inspired meme coins Dogecoin and Shiba Inu.
Dogecoin burst onto the scene in 2013 but rose to prominence in May 2021 after being name-dropped by Tesla’s Founder Elon Musk on X. The crypto asset hit an all-time high of USD$0.731 per unit on 8 May, just after last year’s Doge Day. Since that day, Dogecoin has shed over 80% in value against the US dollar.
Nearly a decade later, in 2020, Shiba Inu broke into the limelight and reached its first historic high in April 2021. This created a perfect opportunity for the self-proclaimed “Dogecoin killer” to thrive. Shiba Inu has a lower market capitalisation (USD$18.3bn) compared to Dogecoin (USD$23.3bn), but its community has grown and evolved in a decentralised ecosystem. In October 2021, Shiba Inu hit another all-time high of USD$0.00008845, and after a slow start to 2022, the crypto asset price was pushed 20% higher in April 2022.
Like other meme coins, many people believe Dogecoin and Shiba Inu started out as a running joke – with no perceived value other than the fact they have an eye-catching icon and everyone is talking about them. However, this is now known to be far from the truth. In fact, Dogecoin was actually created as a way to tip content creators on social media, as the fastest blockchain network to transact thanks to its one minute block intervals. Recently, Musk even went as far as saying that he was pushing for X to introduce Dogecoin payments on the social media platform.
Meme coin prices can be a rollercoaster, as they tend to explode onto the scene with soaring price tags amid wild public hype, but then settle back down as the novelty wears off. However, after their lofty highs and popularity peaks, we are seeing Dogecoin and Shiba Inu stabilising and proving that no two meme coins are the same.
The rise of ApeCoin
At first glance, ApeCoin would seem like just another meme coin, but it has a very different backstory to that of Shiba Inu and Dogecoin.
ApeCoin was launched by the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT project, which has skyrocketed in value and popularity in the last year. While NFTs might seem ephemeral, many have utility, such as assigning ownership of physical or virtual assets, and unlocking access to exclusive content.
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The Bored Ape Yacht Club is one of the world’s most popular NFT collections. The project has traded more than 485,000 ETH since its inception, which is more than USD$1.5 billion dollars. Many celebrities and influencers in the crypto space changed their X profile pictures to apes in 2021 and, right now, you’d be lucky to pick one up for less than USD$300,000. In fact, if we look at their floor price, the lowest price of any NFT within the respective collection, Bored Apes have the highest floor price of any other NFT collection.
Of the full output of 1 billion ApeCoins, 15% went to those who hold NFTs from the Bored Ape Yacht Club, its spin-off collection the Mutant Ape Yacht Club and the Bored Ape Kennel Club.
Will ApeCoin crash?
Yuga Labs, the creators of Bored Ape Yacht Club, also confirmed it will adopt ApeCoin as the primary token for all new products and services, and the ApeCoin ecosystem will also be enhanced with play-to-earn blockchain games, physical merchandise, events and more.
All of this demonstrates that ApeCoin could turn out to be much more than a meme coin and its use case could have sustained value. It represents a major milestone moment for the NFT and crypto-asset ecosystems.
For those who missed getting in on the ground floor with the Bored Ape Yacht Club, ApeCoin could be one to watch. If the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection continues to grow in value, ApeCoin will likely follow suit.
However, Shiba Inu could also make a comeback if the Shiba community will honour its plans to ramp up ‘DoggyDAO’, the NFT platform and DAO-based governance system now in phase one for the Shiba ecosystem. Will it be a battle of the memes?
Cover image source: Andy.k /Shutterstock.com
