What Is Shiba Inu (SHIB)?
Shiba Inu (SHIBUSD) is an Ethereum-based altcoin (a cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin) that features the Shiba Inu—a Japanese breed of hunting dog—as its mascot. Shiba Inu is widely considered to be an alternative to Dogecoin; in fact, proponents of Shiba Inu tout it as “the Dogecoin killer.”
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Shiba Inu and Dogecoin are meme coins, which are cryptocurrencies that are associated with some theme—like the Shiba Inu dog in the case of Shiba Inu and Dogecoin—but are often launched as a parody or inside joke rather than as a digital product that actually has some utility.
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While Dogecoin was launched in December 2013, Shiba Inu was created in August 2020 by an anonymous individual or group called Ryoshi.

The Shiba Inu Ecosystem
The Shiba Inu ecosystem consists of the following three tokens:

Shiba Inu (SHIB): This is the project’s foundational currency. Starting with a supply of 1 quadrillion (equal to 1,000 trillion), Ryoshi locked 50% in Uniswap (for liquidity purposes) and then sent the other 50% to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin for safekeeping. In May 2021, Buterin donated more than 50 trillion Shiba Inu coins, then worth over $1 billion, to a COVID-19 relief fund in India, when the nation was reeling from the Delta variant of the coronavirus. Shortly thereafter, Buterin also “burned”—or permanently removed from circulation—40% of Shiba Inu’s total supply to a so-called dead wallet.
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Leash (LEASH): The second token in the Shiba Inu ecosystem, Leash represents the other end of the ecosystem’s spectrum, with a total supply of only 107,646 tokens compared with the trillions of Shiba Inu tokens.
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Bone (BONE): Bone fits in between the other two tokens in terms of circulation supply, with a total supply of 250,000,000 tokens. It is designed to be a governance token that will allow the SHIBArmy to vote on upcoming proposals.
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