Shiba Inu
This article is about the internet meme. For the original Solana memecoin, see Shiba Inu ($SHIB).
Shiba Inu Shiba Inu, a small spirited Japanese dog breed, became one of the internet's most recognizable animal memes and the template for a whole class of 'dog coins' led by SHIB on Ethereum.
Origin
The Shiba Inu breed went viral in the late 2000s and early 2010s through photo blogs and, above all, the 'Doge' image of Kabosu, a rescued Shiba whose side-eye expression and Comic Sans captions turned the breed into shorthand for wholesome internet humor. The dog itself became a meme long before it became a market.
Spread
After Dogecoin (2013) rode the Doge image, the Shiba Inu became crypto's unofficial mascot. In August 2020 an anonymous founder known only as Ryoshi launched Shiba Inu (SHIB) on Ethereum, branding it 'the Dogecoin killer' and sending half the supply to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin. Buterin burned most of it and donated the rest, and the 2021 rally turned SHIB into a household name.
Legacy
SHIB minted a community that calls itself the 'SHIBArmy' and grew into a full ecosystem with ShibaSwap and the Shibarium layer-2. It cemented the Shiba Inu as the blueprint every later dog coin would imitate, from BONK to countless pump.fun launches.
The Chain Trail
The OG token for this meme is Shiba Inu ($SHIB) on Ethereum, launched 2020-08.
Key facts
- Breed origin: Japan; popularized online via the Doge image of Kabosu.
- Token: SHIB, launched on Ethereum in August 2020.
- Founder: the pseudonymous 'Ryoshi'.
- Half the supply was sent to Vitalik Buterin, who burned most of it.
- Nicknamed 'the Dogecoin killer'; spawned ShibaSwap and the Shibarium L2.
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The tokens that claim Shiba Inu
Every token we can tie to this meme, and which contract appeared first. The original is marked OG; the rest arrived to ride the name.
| # | Coin | Price | 24h | Market Cap | Liquidity | Launched |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Shiba Inu $SHIB | $0.00000464 | +0.25% | $4.64B | $2.34M | Aug 1, 2020 |
Combined live market cap for Shiba Inu: $4.64B across 1 coin. Market data is live from DexScreener; figures are not investment advice.
The deep investigation. Deployer and wallet maps, contract migrations, bundles, supply concentration, and every project that falsely claimed to be first, with archived sources and a full chronological record.
We don’t sell the truth. We sell the work it takes to find it. Commissioned research is coming soon, and conclusions always stay independent and evidence-based.