One quadrillion. That is how many SHIB coins Ryoshi made in August 2020, a one followed by fifteen zeros. For months, almost nobody cared, and SHIB traded at prices with so many zeros after the dot that they looked like a typo. Then, in early 2021, crowds went hunting for the next dog coin, and SHIB caught fire.
Key points:
- SHIB is a token on Ethereum, not a coin with its own chain.
- ShibaSwap is its own exchange, and Shibarium is its Layer 2 chain on top of Ethereum.
- SHIB looks cheap per coin, but that says nothing on its own — judge it by total value.
Here is the split that clears up most confusion. Dogecoin has its own chain and runs on mining, a bit like Bitcoin. SHIB has no chain of its own. It follows Ethereum's standard rules and lives on Ethereum, with Shibarium as its side road for cheaper, quicker trades. Inside its own apps, SHIB is the main coin, but not the only one. LEASH is a second coin with a tiny supply, meant as a reward for loyal fans, and BONE is a third coin, and holding it gives you a vote on changes.
Watch the cheap-coin trap, too. One SHIB costs a tiny fraction of a cent, but with hundreds of trillions of coins still out there, the price per coin stays tiny even when the project is worth billions. And scams are everywhere around meme coins: fake giveaways, fake support accounts, and messages asking for your seed phrase. Real projects never ask for that phrase, and a SHIB payment, once sent, generally cannot be undone.
My honest take sits in the middle. SHIB is a great story to learn from, and a risky coin to hold. Fun and safe are two very different things in crypto.
This is a learning post only, and it is not financial advice. Nothing here tells you to buy or sell. Any buy is your own choice and your own risk, so please do your own research first.
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