Shiba Inu might escape Dogecoin’s shadow as it makes efforts to become a real crypto ecosystem

• Shiba Inu, despite emerging as a meme, is developing into an actual DeFi ecosystem.
• Shiba Inu’s tokenomics, on paper, deem it significantly better than Dogecoin.
• SHIB’s movement on the charts, contrary to the broader meme coin market conditions, suggests that it may no longer be tethered to DOGE.

Shiba Inu falling under the category of a “meme coin” certainly began as a mere joke, but the decision to develop it into an ecosystem is giving it an edge over other meme coins. While others continue to see influence from Dogecoin, Shiba Inu seems to be separating itself from that narrative.

Shiba Inu - A joke that landed

Shiba Inu has been deemed the Dogecoin killer, and in some ways, its emergence has given DOGE quite the competition. Over the last year, on multiple occasions, the hype surrounding the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) capabilities of Shiba Inu and its entry into the Metaverse resulted in the SHIB flipping DOGE in terms of market capitalization.

Among the topmost crypto assets, SHIB, despite being less than three years old, has established itself in the top 15 list. The meme coin beats out the likes of Tron and Chainlink, which offer significantly more than Shiba Inu.

Shiba Inu made this happen by capitalizing on the meme coin trend that ravaged the crypto market throughout 2021 and 2022. Thanks to Elon Musk, the meme coin narrative took off, and Shiba Inu used this to attract users to the network and establish itself in the DeFi sector. 

Earlier this week, the development team also announced the launch of Shiba Inu’s Metaverse - SHIB: The Metaverse. With over 100,000 plots, the virtual world is set to be partially open to users and explorers by the end of 2023.

Even in terms of tokenomics, Shiba Inu has the upper hand over Dogecoin, as the former is a deflationary asset thanks to the burn mechanism, while the latter is still an inflationary asset. Thus despite SHIB’s supply running in trillions, it has the opportunity to hold some real value down the line. 

Furthermore, Shiba Inu has been keeping with the market’s demand and transitioned into a Proof of Stake chain in spite of launching as a Proof of Work chain. Dogecoin is lacking on this front as well.

Shiba Inu holders still remain bullish 

One of the biggest reasons for Shiba Inu’s success is its community. These holders have maintained their bullishness towards the altcoin even in turbulent market conditions. Over the last week, all meme coins observed declines worth more than 10%, including Dogecoin, except for SHIB, which fell by less than 2%.

Moreover, the recent Twitter Dogecoin stunt bore no significant impact on Shiba Inu, which was quite surprising. This indicates that the DOGE killer is no longer tethered to Elon Musk’s favorite cryptocurrency and its movement.

While initial signs suggested that Shiba Inu might be affected by the Dogecoin shenanigans, its investors’ consistent accumulation pulled SHIB away from that fate. Whale accumulation also continued even in uncertain market conditions. Cohorts holding a balance of 100,000 SHIB to 1 million SHIB as well as the ones holding 10 million SHIB to 1 billion SHIB have been consistently acquiring more and more of the altcoin. 

Shiba Inu whale movement

This is a positive sign for SHIB since the altcoin has room to chart a rally but would need consistent investor support to do so. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) just flipped the neutral line into a support floor, suggesting that a bounce is likely. 

SHIB/USD 1-day chart

Furthermore, the sideways movement observed on the charts is considered to be a build-up before a potential run-up. Should the expected alt season arrive over the next few weeks, Shiba Inu would be in a position to significantly benefit from the situation.