Elon Musk's favorite cryptocurrency, Dogecoin, is on the verge of being overtaken by its spinoff rival, the meme-inspired Shiba inu digital token.
According to data from the tracking website CoinGecko, the coin has increased by 68.1% in the previous 24 hours as of Wednesday night, reaching a new high of over $0.000077. In the previous week, the price more than doubled, soaring 166.1%.
Amid Shiba inu's apparent surge, individual investors are urging the Robinhood trading app to list the hottest meme coin, named after the canine mascot of Dogecoin, which is itself a spoof of Bitcoin.
SHIB — as it's officially known — is practically worthless by almost every conventional financial criteria used to appraise an asset. But in the crypto world, not only does it have value, but its skyrocketing growth has given it a total market capitalization of more than $37 billion, in estimates for now, at least.
The enthusiasts even began a Change.org petition, which has now gathered over 360,000 signatures. So far, Robinhood has remained silent on whether or not it would support Shiba inu.
Social media users and crypto enthusiasts have brought the hashtag #ShibArmy to trends, at the same time bombarding Robinhood's Twitter with proposals and demands to include the coin in the list of cryptocurrencies.
Analytical websites around the world of cryptocurrencies have been celebrating the unprecedented growth of the meme currency all day, given the backdrop of the general market decline.
According to CoinGecko data, Dogecoin has dropped 11% in the previous 24 hours.
Later on in the day, the media reported that all the trading platforms of the cryptocurrency stopped all Shiba inu-related transactions due to the extremely huge demand for the purchase of the token.
The main adherent of cryptocurrencies from the world of the wealthiest, Elon Musk, who regularly posts Dogecoin memes, thus indirectly contributing to the significant price increases of meme currencies in recent years, however, answered negatively in response to subscribers who asked if he holds any Shiba inu coin.
Musk later tweeted that crypto users should be wary of putting all of their money into meme currencies like SHIB or the Floki Inu coin, which is named after Musk's real-life Shiba Inu puppy, Floki.
All in all, cryptocurrencies do have a reputation for experiencing extreme volatility. Bitcoin's price halved earlier this year when Chinese regulators cracked down on the country's crypto economy. However, it recently bounced back even higher, achieving a record high above $66,000.
Meanwhile, dogecoin, which experienced a massive rise earlier this year, is now down 68% from its all-time high reached in early May, according to CoinGecko.