What is Shiba Inu (SHIB)?

Shiba Inu (SHIB) is an ERC-20 based meme coin running on the Ethereum blockchain. It's named after the adorable Shiba Inu dog breed from Japan, and features this cuddly companion in its logo. In a nutshell, it's a community-driven crypto project that emerged in 2020 to rival Dogecoin. Its debut slogan is also legendary: “Dogecoin Killer” or ”Dogecoin Killer.” What started as a joke as a Dogecoin competitor has evolved into a whole ecosystem.

The most interesting part of Shiba Inu is that it is completely decentralized and shaped by the community. The founder of Shiba coin is a mysterious person using the pseudonym “Ryoshi”. When he launched SHIB in August 2020, 1 quadrillion tokens were created. From a technical point of view, SHIB is actually a token that runs on Ethereum. In other words, it doesn't have its own blockchain, it operates on the Ethereum infrastructure. Security and functioning are completely dependent on Ethereum. Let's take a deep dive into this iconic meme coin...

Description and Emergence of the Shiba Inu

What is Shiba coin? Shiba Inu first appeared as a “joke coin” as an alternative to Dogecoin. It was launched by a mysterious person or group using the name Ryoshi. So when did SHIB coin come out? The project was launched in August 2020. Ryoshi, like Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto, kept his identity a secret and described himself as a “nobody” and wanted to leave the project entirely in the hands of the community. That was his philosophy: Decentralization and community power. “I am nobody, I am not important. I am Ryoshi”, emphasizing that it was all about the Shiba community (ShibArmy), not personal fame.

If you ask what SHIB token is; Shiba Inu (SHIB) is an ERC-20 token running on the Ethereum blockchain. In other words, it uses the Ethereum infrastructure, Ethereum-based token. It is also managed by smart contracts. It was launched as a “humor-themed” cryptocurrency to rival Dogecoin. When it was first launched, a total of 1 quadrillion SHIBs were produced. Half of this was locked into a liquidity pool on Uniswap, so that anyone who wanted to could buy SHIB fairly from the market. The other half was sent directly to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin. The idea was to ensure that the project would be truly decentralized and not keep large amounts of tokens in the founders' pockets. From the beginning, Shiba Inu described itself as a “decentralized community experiment” and quickly gained a lot of attention online.

Although it didn't attract much attention at first, Shiba Inu's star suddenly shone in 2021. Especially on social media, Reddit and Twitter, the hashtag #ShibArmy created a huge fan base. Shiba's original goal was not to develop serious technology; it was about creating value through the power of community. But over time, the project grew and the color changed. With DeFi projects like ShibaSwap and technical developments like Shibarium, SHIB became more than just a “joke coin”. Thus, Shiba Inu began to build its own ecosystem, becoming a more robust organization.

History of Shiba Inu: Important Milestones

Shiba Inu history is rich. The rise of the Shiba Inu in a short period of time and the important events in the project have been truly dizzying. To answer the question “What does Shiba Inu do?”, here is a quick look at the important stops in Shiba Inu's journey:

2020: Birth and first steps

The Shiba Inu project was launched in August 2020. The SHIB token was first listed and traded on Uniswap. Founder Ryoshi wanted to show that the token was distributed fairly by locking 50% of the total supply on Uniswap and destroying the keys. At this time, SHIB was barely worth anything and the community was just starting to take off.

2021: The boom year and the growth of the ecosystem

2021 has been a turning point for the Shiba Inu. Especially in October, when Elon Musk shared a photo of his Shiba Inu dog, the SHIB price jumped more than 240% in a week. With this momentum, SHIB reached an all-time high price of $0.00008845 at the end of October.

In the same year, the Shiba Inu team also launched its own decentralized exchange, ShibaSwap. Here, users could trade SHIB and other tokens, provide liquidity and earn rewards. Along with ShibaSwap, two new tokens were born: LEASH and BONE. The LEASH token was initially indexed to the Dogecoin price, but then switched to a fixed supply. BONE became ShibaSwap's governance token and is earned from transactions within the platform. We can compare BONE, SHIB and LEASH as follows:

Feature	SHIB (Shiba Inu)	LEASH (Doge Killer)	BONE (Bone ShibaSwap)
Price (April 2025)	$0.00001413	$159.29	$0.3112
Market Capitalization	$8.3 billion	$17.13 million	$71.79 million
Circulating Supply	589 trillion tokens	107,553 tokens	229,923,351 tokens
Maximum Supply	1 quadrillion tokens	107,647 tokens	250 million tokens
Purpose	Community-focused meme coin; used for payments, staking, and NFTs.	Originally designed as an alternative to Dogecoin; offers scarcity through limited supply.	Governance token of the ShibaSwap platform; used for transaction fees on the Shibarium network.
Use Cases	ShibaSwap, Shibarium, NFTs, Metaverse, and payments.	NFTs and exclusive staking opportunities; special community access.	DAO voting, ShibaSwap rewards, and Shibarium transaction fees.
Community Support	Strongly backed by the ShibArmy; highly active on social media.	More niche community; offers rarity and exclusive access advantages.	Supported by DAO members and Shibarium users.

Another big event was when Vitalik Buterin burned 90% of the SHIBs he had. About 410 trillion SHIBs were destroyed and the rest were donated to charity organizations. This move reduced the supply of SHIBs and made the token more valuable. By the end of 2021, Shiba Inu had surpassed 1 million users, creating a huge community.

2022: Founder's departure and community takeover

In May 2022, Ryoshi announced his complete withdrawal from the project, deleting all his social media accounts and writings. Leadership thus passed to the developer and community under the pseudonym Shytoshi Kusama. In fact, Ryoshi had said from the beginning that one day he would leave the scene. This step was completely in line with Shiba Inu's goal of decentralization. In the meantime, the Shiba Inu team has not been idle, and major projects such as Shib: The Metaverse and a mobile game called Shiba Eternity.

2023 and beyond: Shibarium, new horizons

The year 2023 was a year of major technical breakthroughs. Shiba Inu's long-awaited layer-2 network, Shibarium, went live in March with a test network called Puppynet, which attracted a lot of attention. Then, in August, Shibarium's main network officially went live. Thanks to Shibarium, the Shiba Inu ecosystem continues to benefit from the security of Ethereum while offering faster transactions and lower gas fees. Transactions on Shibarium are charged with the BONE token.

The launch of Shibarium is one of Shiba Inu's biggest steps towards becoming a serious blockchain project, far beyond just a meme coin. The creation of more than 21 million wallets during the testnet process clearly shows how wide the project has reached.

As of 2023, the Shiba Inu ecosystem will include ShibaSwap (decentralized exchange), Shibarium (layer-2 network), Shiboshis (NFT collection) and Shib: The Metaverse (metaverse project). As of 2025, the Shiba Inu ecosystem continues to grow with the success of Shibarium and new projects. Shibarium has surpassed 1 billion transactions, reaching over 198 million wallet addresses. In addition, the Shiba Inu team is working on a layer-3 network that will be built on Shibarium and powered by the TREAT token. The community continues to grow every day.

Why is Shiba Inu Valuable?

Since its debut, Shiba Inu has received a lot of praise from fans and critics alike. So, what makes SHIB worthwhile? Let's look at the main factors that have made the Shiba Inu's star shine:

A strong and active SHIB community

Perhaps Shiba Inu's greatest strength is the massive ShibArmy community behind it. Millions of people quickly showed interest in SHIB and started accumulating SHIB in their wallets. Reaching 1 million addresses in November 2021 made it clear how big this interest was. As of 2025, Shiba Inu's official Twitter account also has close to 4 million followers. On social media, ShibArmy members create content about SHIB, spread memes, organize campaigns, and sometimes SHIB hashtags even enter the world trends on Twitter. This massive community support not only keeps SHIB visible in the market, but also paves the way for new use cases.

Decentralization and governance with DAO

Shiba Inu is now fully under the control of the community, with founder Ryoshi stepping down from the project completely. Decisions here are made by community voting through a decentralized structure called Doggy DAO. The key to having a say in the votes is the BONE token. BONE holders can vote on many issues, from which projects to support to which improvements will be made. “Whoever has the most BONEs has the most say” logic works. In other words, the steps that will move Shiba Inu forward are determined by the community itself, not a centralized team. This structure adds extra confidence to the project because people feel that they are not only investors but also part of something.

Expanding ecosystem and technology moves: Shiboshis, Shib: The Metaverse and more

Initially dismissed as just a “joke coin”, Shiba Inu has managed to build its own ecosystem over time. Thanks to ShibaSwap, which was launched in 2021, users could stake SHIB, LEASH and BONE tokens and earn income. In other words, SHIB is no longer just a token to be bought and sold, but a passive income tool. Also, a 10,000-piece NFT collection called Shiboshis was released and attracted a lot of attention. Then the “Shib: The Metaverse” project was announced, a universe where you can buy virtual land and play games using SHIB.

In 2023, the Shibarium network was officially launched. Shibarium allowed Shiba Inu to get rid of Ethereum's problems of congestion and high transaction fees. Now SHIB and other tokens can be traded faster and cheaper. Moreover, this infrastructure paves the way for new decentralized applications (dApps). In short, Shiba Inu is no longer just a joke; it has built an ecosystem full of DeFi, NFT, Metaverse and Layer-2 solutions. This keeps interest in SHIB alive and fuels anticipation for the future of Shiba Inu.

Social media power and viral impact

Shiba Inu is a project that feeds directly from social media culture. It grew with the content produced by ShibArmy on channels such as Twitter, Reddit and TikTok. Even the indirect posts of names like Elon Musk rocketed the SHIB price; a 240% jump in the price with a tweet is not easily seen in conventional markets.

The community is constantly working to keep the interest up: daily token burns, new project announcements, viral meme posts, etc. keep them in the spotlight on social media. Of course, this viral success sometimes puts the project in a speculative mood. But at the end of the day, community and visibility are everything in the crypto world. As of April 2025, the Shiba token price is hovering around $0.00001401.

While Shiba Inu has a strong community and a growing ecosystem, some risks should not be overlooked. SHIB still has a huge supply, which makes it difficult for its price to rise to serious levels. Moreover, in the past, much of the supply has been concentrated in a small number of wallets; the movements of large holders can easily move the price. Since its value is largely based on community belief and social media influence, it can experience sharp drops as well as spikes.

Who is the Founder of Shiba Inu?

The founder of Shiba Inu is Ryoshi, whose real identity is still unknown. What is known about Ryoshi is quite limited; after explaining his vision in a few blog posts and social media posts in the early days of the project, he preferred to stay completely in the background. From day one, he described himself as a “nobody” and never wanted to be center stage. For him, Shiba Inu should be run entirely by the community, without the need for a founder or leader.

Ryoshi wrote in one of his writings, “I have said from the beginning that I am nobody, I am insignificant. Even if those who try to expose me succeed, the result will be disappointing. I'm just someone typing away at a keyboard, someone who can be easily replaced. I'm Ryoshi,” he said, clearly expressing his determination to remain anonymous.

To date, Ryoshi's true identity has not been revealed. In this way, he is reminiscent of Satoshi Nakamoto, the founder of Bitcoin. As Shiba Inu grew up, there was much speculation about “Who is Ryoshi?” but no concrete information was found. To preserve the mystery, Ryoshi deleted all his social media accounts in June 2022 and virtually disappeared from the digital world. His silent farewell at the time marked a turning point for the Shiba community.

With Ryoshi's complete withdrawal from the project, the leadership of Shiba Inu passed to Shytoshi Kusama, another person who had been involved in the project from the very beginning. Shytoshi has announced that he will carry on Ryoshi's vision and grow the project with the community. In a blog post, he wrote, “Ryoshi was one of the most successful anonymous founders in the crypto world. I don't know who he is either, but his legacy lives on in the Shib ecosystem and all our decentralized projects,” he said in a blog post.

Even today, there is no clear answer to the question “Who is Ryoshi?”. But it's less about who she is and more about what she stands for. Instead of turning the spotlight on himself, Ryoshi wanted the project to belong entirely to the community. In other words, he practiced the philosophy of “Everyone can change, but what we build is permanent”.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

As the Shiba Inu (SHIB) ecosystem grows, many questions naturally arise. Here are the most frequently asked questions and answers about Shiba Inu:

• What is Shiba Inu and how does it work? Shiba Inu (SHIB) is a meme coin running on the Ethereum network. SHIB is ERC-20 standard and is transferred securely and compliantly through the Ethereum infrastructure. With the Shibarium network, transactions have become faster and cheaper.
• When did SHIB come out and who founded it? The founder is a pseudonym Ryoshi, who remains anonymous. Ryoshi started the project, quickly handed it over to the community, and then withdrew from the project completely in 2022. So when did Shiba come out? Shiba Inu was released in August 2020.
• Does investing in Shiba Inu make sense: While Shiba Inu offers potential with its strong community and large ecosystem, it carries high risk due to its extreme volatility. The investment decision should be based on individual risk tolerance and market analysis.
• Which exchanges is SHIB listed on? SHIB is traded on many major crypto exchanges and platforms such as Binance, Coinbase, KuCoin, Huobi, Gate.io, Kraken, Robinhood. It is also available on decentralized exchanges such as Uniswap.
• What is Shibarium and ShibaSwap: ShibaSwap is a decentralized exchange (DEX) owned by the Shiba Inu community that allows users to trade and stake tokens such as SHIB, LEASH and BONE. Shibarium is the Shiba Inu ecosystem's layer-2 solution on Ethereum, offering fast and low-cost transactions.
• Is SHIB supply limited: Shiba Inu had an initial supply of 1 quadrillion tokens, but after Vitalik Buterin's massive burn, the supply has been reduced to around 590 trillion. There are no new SHIB mintings, but the total supply is still quite high.

Don't forget to check out our JR Kripto Guide series to follow Shiba Inu and its ecosystem projects closely!