The developers of an alternative cryptocurrency called Shiba Inu have removed some of the coin’s supply from circulation as they try to restore some of the excitement that sent prices soaring earlier this year.
As FXEmpire reported, the price of Shiba Inu, or SHIB, rose nearly 20% over the weekend after the developers announced a coin burn, a move in which a coin holder sends a portion of their assets to a wallet that no one can access. This tactic effectively destroys the coins and reduces the total supply of a cryptocurrency, and it can be used to control inflation and boost enthusiasm among investors.
Excitement is everything in the world of alt coins, which have little inherent value and trade largely on hype. The developers and holders of these coins are constantly jockeying for attention, which is why some of them have turned to celebrity and influencer endorsements as a way to attract new investors. The line between good-faith marketing efforts and pump-and-dump tactics is often thin, and many alt coins are outright scams.
Shiba Inu became a poster child for this market in May, when a listing on the popular cryptocurrency exchange Binance led to a trading frenzy. At the time, SHIB reached a peak value of $0.000039, but its price has declined considerably since then. As of this writing, the coin trades for roughly $0.0000077, or about 20% of its all time high.
This isn’t the first notable instance of coin burn for Shiba Inu. After the coin took off in May, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin burned 90% of the tokens that the developers had sent to him unsolicited, donating the remaining 10% to the India COVID-19 Relief Fund. Buterin’s share had represented 50% off all SHIB in circulation. In this case, however, the people behind the coin are doing the burning themselves.
The developers have since established additional coins—called LEASH and BONE—and an exchange where people can trade them, establishing an “ecosystem” of ways for traders to gamble their money through meme coins.