Andi syaputra
The dogecoin-inspired cryptocurrency shiba inu rallied close to 30% on Tuesday after Kraken, one of the largest exchanges, listed the coin.
The meme coin had gained 28.2% in 24 hours to stand at 0.00005022 by 7:03 a.m. ET, according to CoinGecko data. Shiba inu started in August 2020 as almost a copycat coin to dogecoin, the original meme cryptocurrency, and has grown about 80,000 times in value this year, making it one of the crypto stars of 2021.
Before Kraken’s announcement late on Monday, the coin had come under pressure along with other cryptocurrencies including bitcoin, which slid as concern grew over the economic impact of the Omicron coronavirus variant that was first identified in southern Africa late last week.
Kraken announced in a blog post Monday it would start offering shiba inu the following day. The coin is now tradable against the US dollar and the euro, and the minimum tradable amount is 50,000 shiba inu.
The exchange teased earlier this month that it would list the coin on November 2 if its Twitter post got 2,000 likes. The post garnered 60,000 likes, but Kraken backed down from its pledge, saying it was moving “through its listing process,” prompting a backlash from shiba inu fans.
The shiba inu community has been anticipating the coin’s listing on exchanges, and people have even made a petition for the retail-trading platform Robinhood to list the coin. The petition now has over 540,700 signatures.
“Shiba Inu is a classic meme token, so we can expect rapid ups and downs of its price, as well as fluctuations with huge amplitude,” said Zach Horn, vice president at ADAcash, a reward-staking project for the cardano network.
“The further price of the coin will be influenced by several factors at once, one of which is listing on large exchanges, such as Robinhood. If they support shiba, then we may see new price records.
“However, there is a great risk that exchanges will be under pressure from regulators, whose position in relation to such coins is usually prohibitive,” Horn added.
Aside from Kraken’s decision to list shiba inu, a crypto whale nicknamed Gimli bought 24.8 billion SHIB tokens Monday in a purchase worth about $1 million, according to Whale Stats. The wallet now holds 273.9 billion shiba inus valued at about $13.8 million.
The last time shiba inu hit a record high, it was revealed that a whale had purchased 276.6 billion in tokens. Not long after, the coin lost a fifth in value in one day, after data showed the second-biggest shiba inu whale moved $2.3 billion worth of tokens out of their wallet earlier in November, prompting concern about the high concentration of coins in very few hands.
But the risk from large holders could be smaller than many fear, Horn said.
“I believe that the risk of massive coin draining by whales is exaggerated. Historically, large investors are more patient than retail traders and invest for a long time,” he said.