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Here's what you need to know about the Shiba Inu Coin. unsplash (CC0)

The Shiba Inu Coin has been in the news lately and has suddenly attracted a lot of interest. But what exactly is the Shiba Inu Coin and where can you buy it?

The Volatile Crypto Market

Back in 2013, engineers Jackson Palmer and Billy Markus made a joke cryptocurrency called Dogecoin. Featuring the Shiba Inu dog in the “doge” meme that was popular on the internet at that time, Dogecoin was created to satirize the growth of altcoins on the internet.

As the years went by, Dogecoin’s market capitalization slowly climbed, managing to reach a peak of $0.017 in 2018 thanks to a crypto bubble, the same one that made Bitcoin surpass a previous all-time high of $19,000 before crashing.

At the start of 2021, its price soared more than 800% as Reddit users (who were pumping Gamestop and AMC stocks at that time) also took notice of the coin. Since then, its price has steadily gone down, indicative of the volatile crypto market.

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The Shiba Inu Coin was originally created to challenge Dogecoin, a joke crypto that became popular in the last few years. Unsplash (CC0)

What is Shiba Inu Coin?

After the meteoric rise of speculative assets alongside Dogecoin and Gamestop, new crypto projects have started popping up, one of which is the Shiba Inu Coin.

Made by an anonymous individual going by the name Ryoshi and dubbed as the “Dogecoin killer,” the Shiba Inu Coin is a new decentralized meme token growing in a vibrant ecosystem. Featuring another Shiba Inu dog on its coin face, it started as an experiment and became an ERC20 token from Ethereum meant to challenge Dogecoin. What sets Shiba Inu apart from Dogecoin is its decentralized Shibaswap exchange. As the digital coin is part of Ethereum’s ecosystem, users can enjoy more functions like swapping tokens and staking (or gaining) yield. This is something that Dogecoin does not allow.

Ryoshi started with a supply of 1 quadrillion tokens (1,000 raised to the power of five). Not long after, Ryoshi locked half of the tokens in a decentralized finance protocol called Uniswap and sent (or “burned”) the other half, worth $1 billion to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin. The latter donated trillions of Shiba Inu Coins to India to help fund support for those affected by COVID-19, making it the largest crypto donation to date.

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As the Shiba Inu Coin is an ERC20 token made in the Ethereum network, it is more functional than Dogecoin. Unsplash (CC0)

Shiba Inu Coin Price

Unlike Bitcoin, which is currently trading at around $35,000 per coin, Shiba Inu currently goes for about $0.00002161 per SHIB today, Wednesday (October 6), which is just a sliver of a penny. The logic is that this cheaper coin can get a bigger audience.

Recently, the value of the Shiba Inu Coin soared because of the “Elon Musk effect,” after the Tesla founder tweeted about it. However, the value crashed 10 days after.

How to Buy Shiba Inu Coin on Coinbase

Now that you know about the Shiba Inu Coin, you can diversify your portfolio and include it in your investments. Those who want to bet on the Shiba Inu Coin will be pleased to hear that the altcoin has been added to Coinbase last June, making it easier to buy and sell.

Here are easy-to-follow steps that will teach you how to buy the Shiba Inu Coin:

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Coinbase is a beginner-friendly crypto exchange in the U.S. coinbase.com

1. Make your Coinbase Account

If you already use Coinbase, then you may skip this step. If not, then you may start by visiting the Coinbase website and clicking “create your account.” Provide the required information, choose a payment method and verify your account via email.

You can get a more detailed explanation of Coinbase and its perks by clicking here.

2. Click Buy and Pick Shiba Inu Coin from the Crypto Assets

After setting up your account, open the app and click “buy,” where you will be shown the list of available crypto assets. Currently, Coinbase has over 25 cryptocurrencies available. Pick Shiba Inu Coin (SHIB) before proceeding.

3. Input how much Shiba Inu Coin you’re buying

Pick how many shares of Shiba Inu Coin you'll be buying. The coin is currently priced at $0.00002161 per SHIB, so you can easily buy a lot. Buying more coins also means you'll have a higher potential for gains should the price soars again.

4. Preview coin purchase

Once you’ve decided how much you want to buy, click “preview” to check your price. This will show you the amount of SHIB coins you will be buying, the Coinbase fee and the payment method. Note that Coinbase deducts its fees from the amount you purchase, so a $50 purchase will have a fee of $1.99 deducted from it. You can pay through your credit card or bank account.

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As with any altcoin, Shiba Inu coin's price goes up and down all the time. coinbase.com

5. Receive a confirmation email

You’re done! You have now purchased SHIB and the final step is to wait for the confirmation email along with other relevant information. From here, you can add the Shiba Inu Coin to your portfolio. You can also use the Coinbase wallet to protect it.

Should You Invest in Shiba Inu Coin?

As with any altcoin operating in the crypto market, the Shiba Inu Coin is volatile and its price will likely go up and down.

As an altcoin, the Shiba Inu has an advantage over Dogecoin since it has more applications than the latter. Being part of a vibrant ecosystem on Etherium also means that it has more chances of taking off. The crypto used to create it (Ethereum) is also one of the more reliable digital coins around, with its technology being utilized by major institutions.

Interested in buying your first Shiba Inu Coin? Start today by signing up on Coinbase here.